ISLAMABAD, May 04 (APP):Anti-smuggling teams of Directorate Customs Intelligence and Investigation, working under the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), have seized illegal movement of different goods worth Rs 754 million during the last four days of the current week.
Acknowledging the good performance, FBR Chairman Asim Ahmad visited Customs Intelligence Headquarters here to applaud the anti-smuggling operations that resulted in the seizure of essential commodities including dry fruits, cigarettes, Indian-origin Gutka and Shisha flavor, a news release said on Thursday.
The anti-smuggling operations were conducted by the Directorate General of Intelligence & Investigation- Customs in the province of Balochistan, Rawalpindi Islamabad and Karachi in line with the directives of the Prime Minister to launch a crackdown against the smuggling of essential items from Pakistan to the neighboring countries.
In Gwadar, Director General Customs Intelligence Faiz Ahmad Chadhar shared credible information with the Directorate of Customs Intelligence that a huge quantity of Pakistan-origin Fertilizer Urea and sugar had been dumped at different premises/godowns in and around Khuzdar City, for onward smuggling from Balochistan to Afghanistan.
Accordingly, a team had been constituted to conduct the operations for seizure of the essential items from various dumping sites of District Khuzdar.
On April 29, the Customs Intelligence team assisted by Frontier Corps, Kalat Scouts at Khuzdar, District administration and Police, searched a Farm House and recovered 26,407 Bags of Fertilizer Urea and 8,209 bags of sugar from the premises.
In another raid in Khuzdar District, as many as 10,630 bags of Pak-origin Urea Fertilizer and 3,770 bags of Sugar were recovered.
In the third leg of the operation, the Joint Team reached the Arbab Complex, a local market, shops of which had been rented for illegal hoarding of the essential items.
“A thorough search of each shop resulted in recovery of 22,978 bags of Pak origin sugar and 2,646 bags of Urea Fertilizer from 33 different shops.”
Besides, two more operations were conducted by the Customs Intelligence Balochistan during the past few days in which 2200 bags of urea fertilizer and 10,000 bags of sugar were seized at Gadani and Noshki.
During the ongoing drive against the smuggling of essential commodities, the Customs Intelligence has seized 41,883 bags of Urea fertilizer having market value of Rs. 167.532 million and 44,957 bags of sugar having market worth of Rs. 224.785 million.
These operations during the last weekend have successfully foiled the attempt to smuggle huge quantities of 86,840 bags of essential commodities with cumulative worth of Rs. 392.317 million to Afghanistan, which is a massive blow to the smuggling mafia.
Similarly in Rawalpindi, on another specific information received through Director General Customs Intelligence Faiz Ahmad Chadhar, a joint operation was conducted at Moosa Godown located at Sharbat Street, Rata Amraal on May 2, and recovered huge quantities of different smuggled items.
The smuggled goods seized during the operation were shifted to Customs Intelligence Headquarters on twenty (20) Mazda Trucks loading with high value items like smuggled Almonds, Cashew Nuts, Walnuts, Cigarettes, Tea etc. valuing Rs 300 million.
This anti-smuggling operation was executed by Additional Director Customs Intelligence Shahid Jan and Deputy Director Salik Mahmood under the direct supervision of Director Customs Intelligence Irfan Wahid and Director General Faiz Ahmad Chadhar, who continuously provided back up support and guidance during whole night as the operation lasted for more than 14 hours.
To thwart any untoward law and order situation, an effective liaison was established with the senior command of Rawalpindi and Islamabad Police who extended excellent support throughout the operation.
In Karachi, acting upon yet another credible information shared by the Director General Customs Intelligence to the Directorate of Customs Intelligence that a huge quantity of foreign origin smuggled cigarettes, gutka and cosmetics was stocked in a private godown near Bolton Market, Saddar.
Following which, an anti-smuggling operation was planned to seizure of the illegal stocks, under the supervision of Director Customs Intelligence Karachi Engr Habib Ahmad Warriach.
The Customs team carried out the operation in the wee hours of May 3 with the backup support of Law Enforcement Agencies and recovered 2.2 million sticks of smuggled cigarettes and 0.3 million pouches of Indian origin Gutka and Shisha flavor worth Rs 61.3 million.
It is pertinent to highlight that the Godowns from where the smuggled goods had been recovered in Karachi and Rawalpindi are located in densely populated areas.
The local residents who are under the influence of smugglers and their accomplices attempted to prevent Law Enforcement Agencies from executing any enforcement action, whenever these were undertaken.
In this backdrop, it was extremely challenging for Customs Intelligence teams to conduct the instant operations.
However, these were meticulously planned and executed in a professional manner ensuring recovering of huge quantities of smuggled goods without resulting in any collateral damage.
After getting appreciation from the FBR chairman, the Director General Customs Intelligence assured that no stone would be left unturned in eradicating smuggling from the country.
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