LANDI KOTAL: The political administration of Khyber Agency abolished six illegal checkposts, established by Khasadar Force near Torkham border to fleece local exporters and transporters, official sources said.

They said that the checkposts were abolished after complaints were lodged by transporters, taking commodities to Afghanistan via Torkham border.

“These checkposts were earning a bad name for the administration. People wrongly believed that these checkposts were established in connivance with higher authorities of the administration,” they added.

The officials said that checking of vehicles and monitoring system would be overhauled and at least two checkposts would be reestablished after some time to check anomalies in exports to Afghanistan and keep an eye on smuggling of banned goods.

The transporters had long been complaining about ‘extortion’ by Khasadar and Levies personnel posted at those illegal checkposts. They alleged that a Subedar and at least 12 khasadars were deployed at each of those illegal checkposts, which were established at only two furlongs distance from the border.

“Officials at Torkham border had deployed separate khasadars for different types of vehicles, carrying different commodities to Afghanistan,” a Customs clearing agent told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

He said that the khasadars would charge Rs3,000 from every loaded truck going to Afghanistan. They would not spare even the empty trucks coming back from Afghanistan, he added.

He said that daily income from those checkposts ran into millions of rupees, which was in the knowledge of the political administration.

A khasadar posted at one of the abolished checkposts told Dawn that most of the personnel deployed at those lucrative checkposts had the backing and support of influential tribal elders and parliamentarians.

“It is a mere eyewash as we saw such actions in the past only to be ignored a few weeks later,” Jamshed Khan, a local transporter, said when his reaction was sought about the abolition of the checkposts.

He said that if administration was sincere in abolishing corruption in Khasadar and Levies forces, it would have stopped the personnel from taking money from transporters and traders at near a dozen checkposts established all along the Peshawar Torkham Highway.

A khasadar in Landi Kotal told Dawn that abolition of those illegal checkposts was a temporary arrangement and such checkpoints would be reestablished when the harsh criticism of transporters died down after some time.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2015

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