KOHAT, Jan 9: The money exchangers in the open market are very cautiously accepting Euro, fearing that counterfeit notes may have been circulated by the mafia already in the illegal business in the nearby infamous tribal town of Darra Adam Khel, Dawn learnt here on Wednesday.

Mahfooz Elahi, who is a famous currency dealer in the local market, told Dawn that the dealers daily received a number of counterfeit notes from Pakistani rupees to dollars. “In short, you name any currency of the world, and you get its fake notes.” The experience with the old currency “has enabled us to differentiate between the genuine and fake currency but as far as Euro is concerned, which first arrived here six months back and became regular currency of Europe with the start of the new year, we do not have any knowledge how to identify the counterfeit Euro.”

He said: “Dealing in various currencies is our only business but we are moving very cautiously while dealing with the Euro though it has yet to fully replace other European currencies already circulating in the market.”

He said their business had also been affected because now all the European currencies were being treated at par, i.e., Rs56 to one Euro.

This had affected the exchange rate of pound but at the same time given boost to German mark.