Major bids to smuggle huge quantities of fertilizer, sugar to Afghanistan foiled

ISLAMABAD: Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation-Customs foiled major attempts to smuggle huge quantities of 86,840 bags of essential commodities including fertilizer and sugar worth Rs 392.317 million to Afghanistan.

In line with the directions of the prime minister to launch a crackdown against the smuggling of essential items from Pakistan to the neighboring countries, a credible information was received through Faiz Ahmad, Director General, Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation-Customs, Islamabad that a huge quantity of Pak-origin urea fertilizer and sugar are dumped at different premises /godowns in and around Khuzdar City, for onwards smuggling from Balochistan to Afghanistan.

Dr Tahir Qureshi, Director, Directorate of Intelligence & Investigation-Customs, Gaddani was assigned the lead role in conducting the operations in association with the officials of the Regional office Quetta who deputed Moeen Afzal Ali, Additional Director to execute the operation for seizure of the essential items from various dumping sites of District Khuzdar in wake of information provided by the director general.

The Customs Intelligence team led by Majid Hussain Gaad, Assistant Director, duly assisted by Frontier Corps, Kalat Scouts at Khuzdar, District administration and police. The joint team searched the farm house of the local smuggler and recovered 26,407 bags of urea fertilizer and 8,209 bags of sugar from the premises.

It is pertinent to mention that the owner of the premises could not produce the documents about the legality of the goods stored as per the Standard Operating Procedure issued by the Agriculture & Cooperatives Department, Government of Balochistan against the hoarding, illegal transport and smuggling of essential items - urea and sugar.

The premises were sealed and the seized goods were handed over under supardari to the local police, District Administration and Frontier Corps, Kalat Scouts at Khuzdar.

After successfully accomplishing the first leg of the operation, the joint team thereafter, conducted the raid on another specific compound, namely, Shafiullah Crushing Plant near Hajr-e-Aswad Hotel on the RCD Highway Khuzdar District which resulted in recovery of 10,630 bags of Pak-origin urea fertilizer and 3,770 bags of Pak-origin sugar from the different areas of the open compound.

Nobody could provide any documentary proof about the legality of the stock hoarded at the premises. For the above two catches, the deputy director Agriculture, Khuzdar informed the joint team that the dealers of urea of the Khuzdar District have declined the ownership of these goods dumped at both the premises.

During the sealing of premises by the joint team, a few shots were also fired from RCD Highway by the unknown persons but no damage was done and the premises sealed successfully.

To pursue the third part of the intel, the joint team reached the Arbab Complex, a local market, shops of which have been rented for the purposes of illegal hoarding of the essential items with intent to smuggle these goods out of Pakistan.

Here the joint team faced stiff resistance from the owners of the shops who did not allow access to the Joint Team to the market and threatened to block RCD Highway.

After lengthy deliberations and negotiations with the help of local elders, the joint team managed to disperse the crowd.

After securing the shopping complex, thorough search of each shop was conducted that resulted in recovery of 22,978 bags of Pak-origin sugar and 2,646 bags of Pak-origin urea fertilizer from 33 different shops.

Nobody came forward to provide any documentary evidence about the legality of these goods stored in the market and even locally authorized urea dealers declined ownership of these goods that gave credence to the fact that these goods were dumped with the intent to smuggle those to Afghanistan.

Consequently, the entire stock was seized under the relevant provisions of the laws. Earlier in two other operations Customs Intelligence Balochistan has also seized 2,200 bags of urea fertilizer and 10,000 bags of sugar at Gaddani and Noshki during the past few days.

Thus during the ongoing operations 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 value of Rs 224.785 million.

These operations during the last week have successfully foiled attempts to smuggle huge quantities of 86,840 bags of essential commodities worth Rs 392.317 million to Afghanistan which is a severe blow to the smuggling mafia.

Chairman FBR and the director general, I&I-Customs congratulated the joint team and supervisory officers of the different federal and provincial departments and organizations who have contributed in controlling the menace of smuggling of essential items from Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023