Afghan security officials carry the coffin of an illegal migrant, killed in a shipping container in Quetta, Pakistan, at the Pakistani-Afghan border town of Spin Boldak. -Reuters Photo

QUETTA Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested the man accused of the container truck tragedy that claimed 47 lives, on Thursday.

'We have arrested Mullah Gul Mohammad from Kuchlal who is involved in human smuggling and played a key role in the container tragedy,' Sultan Afridi a senior official of FIA told Dawn, adding that FIA had already arrested another accused Mohammad Khan from Mazai Adha of Qila Abdullah district last month.

A joint team of the FIA and police raided a place in Kuchlak on a tip off and took the accused Mullah Gul Mohammad who was identified to the FIA by the survivors of the container tragedy during investigations. 'We are looking for others accused involved in human smuggling,' FIA official said.

'Mullah Gul Mohammad is the main accused who brought illegal immigrants to Mazai Adha from the Afghan border town of Spin Buldak,' FIA sources said.

The accused has confessed during the initial interrogation that he was involved in human smuggling for the last 10 to 12 years. 'I am running a human smuggling business for the last 10 years,' Mullah Gul Mohammad said.

Over hundred ill-fated Afghans that included Uzbek, Hazara and Tajiks' had been loaded in the container truck from the hotel owned by Mohammad Khan in Mazai Adha as they gathered in the hotel, survivors informed the FIA officials.

The Afghan authorities have also asked Pakistan to hand over the people to the Afghan government who were responsible for container truck incident that claimed 47 lives.

Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court Justice Amanullah Khan Yasinzai who had taken suo moto of the incident has ordered a suspension of the FIA in-charge of the Chaman check post and eight other officials of Pakistan custom who were posted in Chaman.

Meanwhile, FIA, custom and other security agencies have adopted strict measures for checking container trucks returning from Afghanistan after unloading Nato supplies and transit trade goods in Kandahar.

'Container trucka returning back from Afghanistan are bound to travel with open doors up to their next destination,' sources said, adding that they are not allowed to load anything from the border town of Chaman.

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