MUZAFFARABAD: Intra-Kashmir trade from the Chakothi-Uri crossing point did not take place on Tuesday due to a boycott by traders who claim that police and Pakistan customs treat them with hostility.

They made it clear that from this point forward, trade would remain suspended until their issues were settled.

For a while now, the traders have been complaining about being subjected to raids while their trucks and mercantile goods were being confiscated by the customs officials as soon they enter Pakistani territory from Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

“As soon as our trucks cross the Kohala bridge, we have to give ‘sweeteners’ to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police first, and then the Punjab police also want their palms greased,” claimed Ajaz Ahmed Meer, a representative of the intra-Kashmir traders.

“As if these two extortionists are not enough, the trucks are then ambushed by officials from Pakistan customs because they maintain that the goods brought under intra-Kashmir trade can only be sold in the AJK territory alone,” he said.

On Nov 30, Mr Meer recalled, the traders moved their vehicles in a caravan to escape this situation, but when they reached Faizabad (Rawalpindi) they were intercepted by customs officials who wanted to confiscate the trucks. “In the ensuing clash between the two sides, two officials and three traders were injured,” he said.

Following the incident, an FIR was registered with the Sadiqabad police against seven nominated and 39 unidentified traders on the application of customs officials.

On Dec 13, the Sadiqabad police intercepted a similar convoy at IJT Road and arrested three traders and two truckers from among the accused.

Mr Meer claimed that they also confiscated and handed over a banana-laden truck to the customs officials who auctioned the commodity later.

He said that over the past four weeks, the customs authorities had confiscated and auctioned goods loaded on 12 trucks, causing a loss of millions of rupees to the traders.

He maintained that the treatment being meted out to them by the Punjab police and customs officials looked like it was aimed at halting trade — which was initiated in October 2008 as the second important Kashmir-specific ‘confidence building measure’ between Pakistan and India after cross-LoC travel.

“If the federal government wants to collect any kind of duty from the goods brought under intra-Kashmir trade, it should officially notify us and set up checkposts at Kohala and Azad Pattan,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2017