PESHAWAR, May 23: The Peshawar-based customs intelligence and investigation wing of the Central Board of Revenue has arrested two people for their alleged involvement in illegally stocking relief goods meant for earthquake survivors.
Afzal and Zahid Jan, two of the four main accused nominated in the FIR, were arrested on Tuesday night and were produced in a customs court, which remanded them in custody of the customs intelligence for two days, officials told Dawn. They said the other two accused, reportedly business partners, were abroad.
The two were arrested from the office of the main accused, who had the franchise of a multi-national company dealing in general supplies and services.
The CBR’s customs intelligence and investigation wing had on Sunday recovered 48 containers, packed with relief goods, which had been lifted from earthquake- affected areas.
Apart from a huge quantity of ready-to-eat food stuff, the seized goods included 12 special jeeps, 500 tents, 6 refrigerated containers, 44 split air-conditioners, 44 foreign-made portable toilets, generators, cooking range, hundreds of heaters, washing machines, fans, foreign made furniture, etc. Some of the goods were purely meant for the use of marines who had taken part in rescue and relief operations in the quake-hit region, the officials said.
Preliminary investigation, they said, had showed that in the beginning of 2006 foreign rescue teams, some comprising marines, had set up camps in Muzaffarabad and Mansehra districts and when they went back, they left the containers for the affected people.
Sources involved with the investigations said some of the record captured from the Peshawar office of the accused indicated that goods mainly to be used by marines were supposed to be re-exported to their countries of origin.
The authorities said some goods had been sold in local markets and the accused were intending to get a better margin for the remaining goods by selling them in bulk.
They said a team had been constituted to look into all aspects of the case to know how such goods were transported to Peshawar.