Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: On Tuesday, Border officials said that they arrested two persons for their alleged involvement in taking money from transporters for out-of-turn via Torkham crossing into Afghanistan.
Officials said that the two arrested men, both locals, were allegedly hired by the customs officials for collection of illegal money from truckers to ‘facilitate’ their out-of-turn crossing of the border.”
Transporters alleged that customs staff conducted prompt clearance of goods and then issued gate passes to truckers after taking a hefty amount from them.
Sources in Torkham said that more than 200 loaded trucks were allowed out of turn to cross the Torkham border while the rest were made to wait for several days both at the border and on the main road due to the slow customs clearance process. Custom agents and traders had protested two days before against the slow goods clearance process at Torkham and blocked the road.
Security officials said that they also recovered Rs185,000 from the two arrested men which they said was unlawfully collected from truckers at the border crossing.
However, sources said that the arrest of two civilians allegedly working on behalf of customs authorities was a tit for tat of Friday’s arrest of the cook of border security forces by customs authorities for alleged smuggling of foreign currency to Afghanistan.
They said that security forces had taken into custody two civilians working for police at Charwazgai and Michni checkposts for their alleged involvement in taking illegal money from transporters.
