Wanted Pakistani human smuggler potentially still luring hapless people to deadly crossing

A human trafficker named Khawar Hassan, nearly 30 years of age, is still at large and is potentially still luring hapless people to perilous and deadly crossings with promises of safe routes into Europe, a BBC Verify investigation has found.

Khawar Hassan aka Fadi Gujjar, is unlike many other Pakistani smugglers. While others tend to boastfully advertise illegal routes to Europe online, he is more careful and is believed to be advertising his services through word of mouth.

His online presence is limited to highly edited videos of his travels, and almost all clients identified were local to his town of Jaurah, in Gujrat, BBC Verify said. In fact, two people he was close to, cousins Sufian Ali and Atif Shahzad, were among those who were beaten to death on a deadly boat journey he put them on.

As per BBC, the three men can be seen together in a TikTok video, posted on Fadi’s account, filmed at a beachside restaurant in Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott.

Within a month of the video being posted online, Ali and Shahzad were dead. Fadi, meanwhile, is currently on the run and wanted by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection with the Mauritania boat disaster, which resulted in the deaths of at least 43 Pakistanis and others. 

The survivors claimed that they paid nearly 13,000 dollars to Fadi, BBC Verify reported.

The BBC further reports that Fadi Gujjar’s Facebook location is currently set to Istanbul.

Naming Fadi Gujjar as one of ten smugglers involved in the tragedy, Pakistani authorities have arrested some members of his family, including his mother and one of his brothers, on allegations of collecting money on his behalf from people buying routes to Europe.

After being contacted through WhatsApp via a number shared by survivors, Fadi declined to address the allegations against him, claiming that his name was being misused and that he “left everything up to Allah”.