LANDI KOTAL, Jan 16: Authorities in Khyber Agency are investigating the ‘disappearance’ of nearly 50 flour-loaded trucks which had been allotted for selling at fair price shops in Landi Kotal, Jamrud and Bara tehsils, official sources said.

The Fata Civil Secretariat had sanctioned eight trucks, each loaded with 300 flour bags, on daily basis for

Khyber Agency against its actual demand of 3,000 bags a day.

Officials of the political administration said that since Dec 18 last year, they had not been getting their approved quota for Khyber Agency.

They said that instead of four trucks allocated for the Bara sub-division on daily basis, they received only two trucks a day. Similar was the situation in Jamrud and Landi Kotal, they said.

The local administration has fixed the price of 20kg flour bag at Rs330 at distribution points in the three tehsils, but local people are finding it difficult to get a flour bag at the subsidised rates. The price of a 20kg flour bag in the black market has risen to Rs550.

The local people alleged that the political administration had given flour distribution rights to their favourite tribal elders who, in connivance with local authorities, were not supplying the full quantity of flour to the distribution points and were selling it in the black market.

It was learnt that the Frontier Constabulary arrested two tribal elders in Landi Kotal for their alleged involvement in illegal sale of two trucks loaded with 600 flour bags.

Malik Zahir Shah, who is tasked with flour distribution in Bara, accused flour mill owners of not providing them with the approved quota of flour.

An official of the political administration in Landi Kotal also complained about non-cooperation of flour mill owners and alleged that despite their repeated complaints, they were yet to receive their full quota.

When contacted, an employee of the Assakar Flour Mill insisted that they had provided eight trucks to nominees of the Khyber Agency political administration and had never withheld flour supply.

He alleged that the tribal elders were selling flour in the black market, and not at officially nominated distribution points.

Meanwhile, the political administration deployed additional Khasadar force and Khyber Rifles personnel at the Torkhum border to check smuggling of flour to Afghanistan.