KOHAT, Dec 25: Police here have busted a gang involved in smuggling of non-custom paid vehicles from tribal areas to settled areas of the country.

Officials said that the police were checking papers of vehicles at Jozara area at the Kohat-Hangu border when a Toyota Hiace was stopped for examination of its registration, which was found fake along with its number (LES-6582).

The police party arrested Umeriaz Khan and Mohammad Tayyab, residents of Mamshi area of Bannu district, who tried to flee but were intercepted after a little chase.

During interrogation, the accused said that they were being followed by the gang leader in a car, who returned back to Hangu after their arrest.

The police said that the accused revealed that they were in the business of bringing non-custom paid vehicles from tribal areas, bordering Afghanistan, preparing fake registration papers and selling them to potential buyers in settled areas.

An intelligence officer confided to this correspondent that the tribesmen smuggled vehicles for personal use in Fata where they were exempted from tax. He said that a cartel also existed that smuggled such vehicles to other parts of the country with the connivance of customs staff and police.

He claimed that the charges for non-custom paid vehicle’s entry to Kohat varied at different checkposts. He said that there were three main police checkposts where the staff charged up to Rs8,000 per vehicle. He said that the smugglers who carried such vehicles to Punjab had been paying up to Rs200,000 on average at checkpost depending on model of the vehicle.