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DADU, April 22: Twelve truck-loads of wheat were seized, licences of three wheat traders cancelled and an FIR was lodged against a wheat trader for transporting wheat illegally to Karachi on Wednesday night , officials said here on Thursday.
Officers of the food department, Hyderabad, Salahuddin Shaikh and Saleemullah Siddiqui and the district food controller, Dadu, Mir Muhammad Shah, said during a joint press conference that the seizure was made after they had conducted a raid on the Indus Highway near Sehwan on the directives of the Sindh secretary food on Wednesday night.
They said they had seized 12 trucks loaded with wheat belonging to a major local trader, Muhammad Yaqoob Khokhar, adding the wheat was being transported to Karachi on forged orders ostensibly issued in the names of the provincial secretary food, Mir Muhammad Parhiar and wheat commissioner Islamabad, Qadir Bux Baloch.
They said that a total of 9,082.5 maunds of wheat worth more than Rs3.1 million was recovered from these trucks. They said that an FIR was lodged against Mohammad Yaqoob Khokhar under Section 353, 506/2, of the Food Act with the Sehwan police.
Officials said that licences issued to Mohammad Yaqoob, Manzoor Arain and Mohammad Adam Khokhar were cancelled for illegally shifting wheat from Dadu to other districts. In another raid, they said, they had seized a mini wheat market setup by another trader Mukhtiar Bouk near Dadu.
Referring to the illegal transporting of wheat to other districts of Sindh, they said that 10,000 bags of wheat were being smuggled to Karachi and other towns daily. They said that an operation had been launched to check the inter-district wheat smuggling.
FOOD SECRETARY: Provincial secretary food Mir Mohammad Parhiar said that he had not allowed any trader to shift wheat from Dadu to Karachi or any other district. He said that officials of the food department had been strictly directed to achieve the wheat procurement target in their respective jurisdictions.
ARRESTED: Two bandits were arrested in a raid on the Indus Highway near Kakar town on Thursday, officials said. The police, they said, had arrested two outlaws, Yaroo alias Yar Muhammad Hingoro and Ghulam Khoso. Officials said the police had also seized a Kalashnikov, a rifle and 50 bullets from their possession.
SUSPENDED: The DPO, Dadu, Javed Akhtar Alam Odho, has suspended the SHO, Dadu, inspector Murtaza Memon, on public complaints.
ILLEGAL DETENTION: The Judicial Magistrate, Dadu, Sikandar Amir Pahore, on Thursday raided the Dadu police station and found two persons, Mohammad Ali Jokho and Khair Mohammad, in illegal detention.
The judicial magistrate checked the record of police station but there was no entry of their arrest but had been illegally detained for the past 10 days. The Judicial Magistrate released them and directed the SHO to produce the record before the court on Friday.
