By Hafizullah Storai Sherani
ISLAMABAD
In a swift major escalation following last week’s raids in Islamabad, law enforcement agencies have initiated the physical transfer of 372 foreign nationals to formal state prisons after the federal government revoked their visas and ordered their immediate deportation. The move follows the immediate revocation of SPARCO Plaza’s temporary sub-jail designation by the Chief Commissioner Islamabad on August 14.
“Yesterday, 231 of the arrested foreign nationals were transferred under tight security to Central Jail Adiala, Rawalpindi (205 inmates) and District Jail Attock (26 inmates),” FIA sources stated. “The remaining 141 foreign detainees will also be shifted to these prisons shortly upon the completion of legal and administrative formalities. Among the 372 arrested foreigners, the majority (over 200) are Vietnamese nationals, alongside 111 Chinese citizens and others from Indonesia and various countries.”
Key operational & legal developments
A fresh notification from the Ministry of Interior & Narcotics Control confirms that all visas associated with the FIA case have been canceled. Detainees with valid travel documentation have been issued a one-time 15-day exit permit to leave Pakistan.
The Directorate General of Immigration and Passports has been directed to place all 372 individuals on the Future Entry Control List (FCL) and Black List (BL) to permanently bar them from re-entering the country.
All mobile phones and laptops seized during the raids will be handed back prior to departure. Following the end of their 14-day judicial remand, the suspects will appear before Judicial Magistrate Naseer uddin for final deportation orders.
The mass transfers stem from two coordinated, intelligence-led raids executed on August 11, 2026, targeting illicit operations within SPARCO Plaza. In the first action, the FIA’s Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) arrested 258 foreign nationals under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act after using the IBMS database to confirm they were violating their tourist and visit visa conditions by running an unauthorized commercial call center setup.
Concurrently, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) raided a separate call center in the same complex, apprehending 114 foreigners—including 111 Chinese and 3 Vietnamese citizens—who were charged under PECA 2016 and provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code for their involvement in forgery, fraud, and online financial scams.