KHAR: Hundreds of non-custom paid (NCP) vehicles have been seized in Bajaur Agency in a crackdown launched by the authorities on unregistered and stolen vehicles.

Sources in the political administration told this scribe on Saturday that the crackdown on the NCP vehicles was started on the directives of senior officials on Friday.

Residents said that the local administration neither issued any warning to the transporters prior to the action nor mentioned any specific reason for the crackdown.

Local tribesmen say no warning issued before launch of crackdown

They claimed that at least 500 different types of NCP vehicles, most of them cars, had been impounded during the crackdown during the two days.

The local transporters said that majority of vehicles had been seized from the urban areas of Khar, Mamond , Utmankhel and Nawagai tehsils where several teams of Bajaur Levies force were taking part in the action.

According to the reports from different areas, a number of transporters in different areas had moved their vehicles to ‘safe’ places and were avoiding bringing them on road. Besides, the dealers have not opened their showrooms dealing in NCP vehicles in Khar, Inayat Kallay, Qazafi, Ragagan, Pashat, Sadiqabad and Nawagai for the last two days.

An administration official told this correspondent here on Saturday that the action was initiated on the directives of political agent Abdul Amir Khattak. He said that vehicles with no registration record and documents were being seized.

He said that scores of Levies personnel and officials were taking part in the action against the unregistered and stolen vehicles in the agency.

The official refused to tell about the exact number of seized vehicles, but said that hundreds of vehicles had been impounded till Saturday evening.

Answering a question, he said that there were up to 9,000 vehicles in the agency.

He said that at least 30 per cent of the NCP vehicles were either unregistered or stolen.

Meanwhile, people of a number of localities complained about shortage of public transport vehicles. Also, leaders of different political parties, including JI, PTI, ANP and PPP, showed their dismay over the ongoing crackdown against NCP vehicles.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2017