PESHAWAR, Oct 30: Smuggling of foreign goods via Afghanistan to Pakistan is experiencing a major slowdown due to the deployment   of large numbers of security personnel on the border, sources told Dawn here on Tuesday.

Apart from the deployment of border security personnel, an increasing sense of insecurity among the carriers involved in transporting foreign goods on backs of mules, donkeys and camels has been described as another major reason for the slowdown.

“Everybody [carriers from among the tribesmen living on both sides of the border] is feeling insecure due to US air attacks on Afghanistan; hence there are not many people who are ready to risk their lives”, said Ibrahim Shinwari, a leading businessman from the Landikotal area of the Khyber Agency of the federally- administered tribal areas (Fata).

According to the sources, infiltration of foreign goods from Afghanistan to Pakistan through unfrequented routes between the two countries in Fata underwent “an unprecedented” decline during the last one-and-a-half months after Pakistan increased the number of border security personnel on its border with Afghanistan in the fast-changing post-Sept 11 situation.

Market forces said a large number of containers filled with foreign goods were lying in go-downs and open areas in different parts of eastern Afghanistan but due to increasing insecurity within the war-ravaged country, the goods could not be transported to Pakistan.

Shinwari described the current situation as “the worst time for the traders of Bara markets in Peshawar.”

Traders and businessmen of the Karkhano Bara market involved in the illegal trade said the volatile situation in Afghanistan had left a negative impact on their businesses.

“Even the successive governments — elected and the sitting military regime — failed to stop tribesmen from carrying out the trade but this is for the first time that transportation of goods from Afghanistan through unfrequented routes was at a halt for the last one-and-a-half years”, said another prominent trader of the Peshawar Bara market, while requesting anonymity.

According to the sources, being a major source of livelihood for a large number of tribesmen living on both sides of the border, the slowdown being experienced by the smuggling business has rendered a large number of daily wage earners jobless. “The slowdown has shattered the tribal areas’ economy”, said a Bara trader.

Apart from the infiltration of smuggled goods to Pakistan, routine  business activities at the Peshawar’s Karkhano market — the country’s biggest market of smuggled foreign goods near Hayatabad here - underwent a sharp decline.

Slackness, being experienced by Peshawar’s Karkhano Bara markets, has been attributed to a sharp decline in the number of consumers.

The sources said the number of consumers turning up to shops at Karkhano markets had recorded a sharp decline since US attacks on Afghanistan had become visible in the post-Sept 11 situation.

As a result, they added, the prices of the smuggled goods being sold at the Karkhano market had also experienced declining trends during the last one-and-a-half months.