PESHAWAR, Oct 6: A large number of stolen cars have been smuggled to Afghanistan by international gangs of car-lifters, sources in the tribal regions told Dawn here on Wednesday.

More than 250 stolen cars were smuggled from Pakistan to Afghanistan through the main routes in North Waziristan and Mohmand agencies over the past one and a half years, the sources said.

Munir, a resident of Khyber Agency, was the only gang member who was arrested by the local political authority and handed over to the Peshawar police, they added. But he was only a low-level member of the gang and other members were still operating in the country, sources said. The stolen cars are being sold in the markets in Kabul and Jalalabad, said Sadiq Paracha, a dish antenna trader in Karkhano bazaar.

Mr Paracha is among those victims whose car was stolen in the city and which he later purchased from an Afghan. "My car was stolen on May 23, 2004, from University Town area and exactly after two months I purchased the same from an Afghan in Kabul," Mr Paracha told Dawn.

He said he had seen over a hundred vehicles that were stolen in Pakistan in the second-hand car market in Kabul. "The Afghan car dealer openly informs the buyers about these cars," Mr Paracha said.

He said that North Waziristan and Mohmand agencies were the main routes through which the stolen cars were smuggled to Afghanistan. An unregistered car of another trader was also stolen six months ago and then he bought it from an Afghan car dealer in Jalalabad.

A former transporter, Pir Iftikhar, whose two vehicles were stolen from the city and later smuggled to Afghanistan, alleged Afghan authorities' involvement in the crime.