FAISALABAD, Nov 27: The scandal of recovery of huge quantity of wireless sets, mobile telephones of high frequency and other sensitive equipment took a serious turn when it was discovered that a major portion of material was auctioned by the customs officials at the local dry port.

The scandal of selling highly sensitive communication material like wireless sets, bases of wireless system and walkie-talkie sets was unearthed when a joint team of police, customs and Intelligence Bureau raided shops in Bilal Ganj market on Sargodha Road and took into custody 1,500 mobile telephone sets of different international companies, four walkie-talkie sets, and 70 wireless sets with 50 bases of secret communication from two shops owned by Asif, Kashif and Nadeem. The raiding team arrested all the three shopkeepers and registered a case against them under Section 2(S), 16 of the Customs Act of 1969 and other relevant laws at the Civil Lines Police Station on the report of Assistant Collector Customs Syed Faisal Bukhari. The customs authorities initially appointed Anti-Smuggling Squad inspector Rasheed Awan as an investigation officer to undermine and hush up the operation.

The customs highups suspended Faisalabad Dry Port examiner Nadeem Bhatti and cancelled the licence of Pak International Custom Clearing and Forwarding proprietor Rana Safdar Ali who got the clearance of the consignment of recovered wireless sets and other sensitive material.

During the investigation conducted by the customs authorities, it was revealed that the wireless sets recovered from Kashif Traders, owned by accused Kashif, were purchased by one Javed Iqbal from the customs authorities out of confiscated goods through an open auction.

This development has changed the entire complexion of the scandal and the authorities concerned are perturbed over how to proceed. It is said that some officials of the Customs Department and functionaries of the Faisalabad Dry Port Trust are directly or indirectly involved in this scandal.

A customs officer told this correspondent on the condition of anonymity that import of highly sensitive material like wireless sets, walkie-talkie and bases system of secret communication could only be made by law-enforcement agencies. There was no provision to import these equipment for the private sector, as only the government agencies through valid agreements and clearance of the defence ministry can transact such business. However, the customs authorities, in connivance with the local influential traders of the Bilal Ganj Market, have been importing such material for the last many years, either in the names of fake firms or showing these articles as scrap.

It is said that the custom authorities, in order to save their skin and deceive custodians of the law, confiscated such material and subsequently auctioned it by staging a drama. The formalities of the auction were completed only in the papers.

During the investigation, however, it was revealed that one of the consignments was imported by accused Nadeem directly, which was too cleared by the customs authorities. The customs authorities are reportedly trying hard to hush up the case to save the skin of their colleagues and avoid action from the CBR authorities and other government agencies, which are supervizing this investigation and monitoring the progress of interrogation.

Through another move, the customs officials sought opinion from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority on further proceedings. All the three accused people are being interrogated by a special team of the customs officials and the Intelligence Bureau to trace the groups and personalities involved in this scandal. The involvement of Jihadi and religious organizations in this scandal is also being traced by the investigators.