19 May 2004	Wednesday	28 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, May 18: Customs officials have foiled attempts to smugglemore than 4,000kg of hashish to Saudi Arabia and Canada and arrested an importer and a clearing agent.

Customs Additional Collector Rozi Khan Burki said a truck driver unloaded 163 sacks of gur at customs dry port on Monday morning and left.

Officials got information that 40 of the sacks were filled with hashish for being smuggles to Saudi Arabia, he said. He said no one came to get the consignment cleared till noon.

The weight of each sack was 75kg and 40 of those were filled with hashish, he said. "We recovered 480kg of hashish," he said. On Friday, customs officials at the dry port seized 3,316kg of hashish from two trucks leaded with marble. The contraband was being smuggled to Canada, Mr Burki said and added that an importer, Amjad Javed, and a worker of Sahibzada Clearing Agency, Sirajul Huda, were arrested.

The owner of the trucks, Abdur Rehman, son of Abdul Yaseen, a resident of Gulbahar, escaped, he official said. Amjad Javed told the interrogation team that he was working on behalf of Abdur Rehman, who had promised to pay Rs410,000 to him and the clearing agent, sources said. He claimed that Abdur Rehman was introduced to him by Noor Ashraf and Anwar, both labour contractors at the railways dry port.

Customs officials also seized 740kg of hashish from a fake United Nations vehicle and arrested two men near Amankot in Nowshera district on Monday, said deputy collector, anti-smuggling, Amjadur Rehman. Two other fake UN number plates were seized, he said.

Shoukat Ali, son of Atlas Khan, a resident of Daudzai, and Abdul Haleem, son of Hamaish Gul, a resident of Kalukhel, were arrested. The Anti-Narcotics Force seized 206kg of hashish, 2kg of opium, a kalashnikov and a 22-bore pistol from a car and arrested Mohammad Fida, a resident of the Kacha Ghari refugee camp.