A team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) sealed on Tuesday several shops for their alleged involvement in illegal hawala and hundi cases and recovered cash Rs10 million.

The FIA team raided the Quetta’s Sharah-i-Iqbal Bukhari Center after which the traders the traders shut down all shops in protest against the raid and damaged the vehicles of the agency and also of the media.

The officials raided the shops but the traders resisted and did not allow them to enter. As a result, FIA called police personnel to intervene.

Commercial Banking Circle (CBC) Deputy Director Muhammad Ali Abru said that the illegal business of foreign exchange was going on in a clandestine manner for a month. “With the help of the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan, 11 raids were conducted at different places in which four suspects were arrested.”

He said that the raid in Bukhari Center was also conducted on the bases of data released.

The deputy director said the traders were not cooperating with the officials. However, he added, records were seized from several shops during the raid.

Abru said that they did not have any licences from the SBP, adding that during the raid the agency recovered foreign currencies of Iran, India, China, Turkey, US, and UAE.

“Although the amount of currency is small,” he said, but, he added the agency had identified 15 money exchange agents involved in Hawala, Hundi.