HYDERABAD: The Collector Customs Hyderabad has claimed that some 105 illegally operating petrol pumps in several districts of Hyderabad have been sealed. Addressing a press conference here Sunday at his office, he told that the Customs Hyderabad region had taken action across Sindh excluding Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal, Tharparkar and Umerkot districts.

According to him, the district administrations of Tharparkar and Umerkot sought time for collaborating in action against such petrol pumps because of their preoccupation with arrangements for the January 18 by-elections in the 2 districts.

The Collector informed that they had also seized diesel and petrol worth Rs 40 million in a recent raid.

He also apprised that a gang of smugglers based in Mirpurkhas who smuggled banned Indian items and sold them in the local market had also been apprehended in a raid in Mirpurkhas industrial zone the other day.

In a similar raid in Kashmore-Kandhkot district the smuggled items worth Rs100 million were also seized, he added.

The official said the majority of the smuggled items were entering Sindh from the route of Balochistan. He claimed that after the crackdown against the illegal sale of diesel the sale of Pakistan State Oil company’s fuel stations in Sukkur region increased by 60 percent.