HYDERABAD: The Collectorate of Customs, Hyderabad held a destruction ceremony of confiscated smuggled goods and narcotics at Hyderabad on 16th October.

The Collector of Customs, Hyderabad, "Dr Sadiqullah Khan" hosted the destruction ceremony with sole purpose to create awareness and educate common people about smuggled contraband goods and their hazardous effects to the health of general public, besides causing huge loss to government exchequer.

The ceremony was conducted and supervised by Asim Rehman, Additionl Collector, Amjad Lal Junejo, Assistant Collector (HQ), Irfan Ali Mangi, Assistant Collector (ASO) and the representative from Customs Directorate (Intelligence and Investigation), Hyderabad.

The total number of lots of goods destroyed was 72. The destroyable goods included 38170 sticks of cigarettes, 42.5 tons of betel nuts, 138,700 pouches of gutka, 14 bottles of liquor and 10kg of charas and other confiscated goods having net worth of Rs43.376 million (approximately)were burnt.

The representative of all the relevant government departments i.e. Judiciary, District Administration, Police, Rangers, FIA, IB, Environmental Protection Agency and others including the president, Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Media Reporters and Press Club, Hyderabad were also present and witnessed the destruction ceremony.

Foolproof security arrangements were made to avoid any unpleasant incident including the theft of goods. The officials of fire brigade were also present at site to avoid any untoward incident.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021