…Chief Collector customs said all staff have been put on high alert following a directives by the federal government
LANDIKOTAL: Following the federal government instructions, customs staff at all border points with Afghanistan have issued directives to stand vigilant and take strict actions to curb goods and foreign currency smuggling to Afghanistan that damaging the national economy,officials said on Sunday.
Chief Collector custom Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Salim told The News that on the directives of federal government they have put custom staff at high alert. He said they had received credible information that smugglers were planning to smuggle banned items in large quantity, especially foreign currency to Afghaniatan in vegetables and fresh fruits loaded trucks.
The official said an urgent high level meeting was called in which they decided to curb all kinds of smuggling to Afghanistan. He said teams comprising of experts have deployed at Torkham, Ghulam Khan,Kharlachi and Angor Adda border points with Afghanistan to foil the possible currency and ban items smuggling.
Muhammad Salim said scaners manager at Torkham was ordered to keep watch on the suspected loaded vehicles. He said all the devisional officers were also issued written orders to ensure stricts checking and searching mechanism.
He said they noticed the banned commodities smuggling to Afghanistan which must be stopped.
Chief collector said in last 24 hourse they foiled several attempts of currency,commoditties and non custom paid truck tyres smuggling at Torkham border. He said the worth of seized items was Rs500 millions in open market.
Muhammad Salim said Pakistan customs had adopted zero tolerance policy against smuggling from and to Afghanistan. He said they have also placed a modern monitoring system at all border points so that they could discourage smuggling.
