June 13, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1427

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PESHAWAR, June 12: Customs authorities have detected over 50 containers which either did not reach their destination in Peshawar from Karachi or were cleared by railways officials here without payment of duty.

A case had earlier been registered against two railways officials, two employees of a private sealing agency and a customs clearing agent on charge of releasing eight containers from railways premises in Peshawar without payment of customs duty and other taxes.

During investigation, official documents revealed that over 50 containers had either vanished during the past year on the way from Karachi to Peshawar or cleared by railway authorities without unsealing them in presence of customs officials at the dry port, sources told Dawn on Monday.

The eight containers cleared without payment of taxes were booked in the names of Din Mohammad and Haji Rizwan as importers, having their offices in Shoba Bazaar. But when customs officials raided the places it proved that the shipments had been booked with fake names, the sources said.

The clearing agent of the containers was one Mohammad Bashir, they said.

It was unclear whether the containers had been unloaded on the railways premises or the officials concerned had just made the entry in the record, they said.

They said the authorities were investigating whether the 44 other containers had reached Peshawar or they had been unloaded on the way from Karachi.