LAKKI MARWAT, July 20: Elders of Ahmadzai area asked the local administration to take strict measures to stop wheat and flour smuggling to the tribal areas.

“Illegal transportation of wheat and flour to the tribal areas via Ahmadzai and Tajori has become common practice causing shortage of the commodity in the settled parts of the district lying on the border with the tribal belt of Frontier region,” the elders told a meeting here on Sunday.

A local leader of JUI-Fazl Maulana Samiullah Mujahid, Nawab Khan, Muqqarab Khan, Mumtaz Khan, Halim Khan and others attended the meeting. The elders expressed their concern over the large scale smuggling.

“The roads leading to the tribal areas via Ahmadzai and Tajori are safe routes for the food smugglers,” they said. They said that the practice of illegal transportation of wheat and flour to the tribal areas was continuing unabated, alleging that the local administration has kept a mum over the situation, while the law enforcement agencies despite setting up checkpoints on the roads leading to the tribal regions seem unable to stop the illegal practice.

They said that due to the smuggling the local market was facing shortage of the commodities besides increasing their prices.

They called upon the local authorities concerned to launch a crackdown on food smugglers; otherwise, the people of the area would block the Indus Highway at Malang Adda point in protest against the administration’s failure to curb the smuggling.