Ministry of Interior has seized contraband items and narcotics of around Rs. 960 million in seven months under their campaign to control smuggling.
A senior official at the Ministry on Sunday said during the period, the authorities concerned seized contraband items worth Rs. 86.9 million, narcotics Rs. 873.789 million, petrol Rs. 90 million and also 140 vehicles.
He said during the period the authorities seized 27662.7 kg of hashish, 46.28 kgs of heroin, 12.85 kg opium, 14990 bottles of liquor/beer and 940 gms white powder. The number of illegal immigrants intercepted was Pakistani 1006, Afghani 911, Bengali 04 and seizure of livestock worth Rs. 2.16 million.
About the steps taken to control smuggling during four years, the official said these included establishment of posts along the borders, mobile and foot patrol, occasional road checks, deployment of intelligence tentacles for information gathering. Answering a question, he said at present, the smuggling of livestock to Afghanistan and Iran is not being carried out through frequented routes because of strict checking at check posts, established by the Frontier Corps.
However, because of the vastness of border area and availability of limited number of troops, the chances of small scale smuggling through unfrequented routes cannot be ruled out.
The steps taken to control the smuggling of livestock includedstrict checking of all movement by Frontier Corps and Khasadar/ Levis, the number of posts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have been increased while fencing of unfrequented routes through joint collaboration with Afghanistan has also been erected, he added.
