TAXILA, Jan 30: Smugglers are trafficking contraband and non-custom paid items from Peshawar to others parts of the country, especially Punjab, through passenger trains.

Sources told this correspondent that night coaches as well as Karachi-bound trains were being used to smuggle electronics items including TVs, VCRs, CD players, besides imported cloth, auto spare parts, toys, artificial jewellery, crockery and other household items.

They alleged that the railway authorities and other quarters concerned had joined hands with the smugglers mostly of whom were Afghan nationals. The sources said goods worth millions of rupees were smuggled daily to different cities of the Punjab including Jhelum, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Mianwali, Bhakkar and Rahim Yar Khan. Markets in these cities are flooded with smuggled goods, they added.

They said railway authorities and customs officials had reached underhand deals with the smugglers and were receiving bribe on monthly basis. They alleged that some officials of the railway department were also involved in drugs and narcotics smuggling through passenger trains.

These officials have got themselves deputed on different routes by offering huge bribes to higher authorities, they added. The sources said most of the railway police officials got themselves deputed on the Peshawar-Punjab routes with the aim to smuggle foreign goods.

The railway authorities, when contacted, refuted the charges and said if a railway employee purchased a television or a VCD players for personal use and brought it through train, it could not be termed smuggling.