Additional director of Customs Intelligence Jehanzeb Mahmood, while speaking at a press conference here, said that officials had acted on a prior tip-off about the drug smuggling attempt from the tribal area to Sindh for its subsequent shipment abroad.

He said that a team of Customs Intelligence officials had been sent to Dera Ismail Khan, which had stopped a truck (NWFP- E 3819) at Yark on the Bannu-Dera Ismail Khan Road on Saturday noon.

Narcotics were found during the search of the truck, Mr Mahmood said.

Officials had later brought the truck to the Customs Intelligence office in Peshawar and recovered 3,400kg of hashish concealed beneath the load of timber logs, the official said.

Officials said that 3,400 one-kilogramme bags were stuffed inside 170 large polythene bags

The truck driver, Satana Gul, was arrested, Mr Mahmood said. He denied that any other person had been arrested during the truck seizure by the Customs Intelligence team.

However, it was learnt on good authority that an accomplice of Satana Gul managed to escape before the Customs Intelligence stopped the truck. Sources in the customs intelligence said that the escaping smuggler or smugglers were not given a chase.

The hashish was packed in polypropylene coffee sacks and had been sealed using automatic machines in Dara Adamkhel, said another official of the Customs Intelligence.

“It is difficult even for sniffer dogs to detect the hashish packed in these polythene bags sealed with automatic machines,” he added.