KARACHI: A mob of Afghans residing in Pakistan’s biggest city attacked a team of custom officials accompanied by police and paramilitary rangers after they carried out a raid to seize smuggled goods from a market in a main commercial area of the city.
A video, which has gone viral, shows dozens of Afghans armed with sticks running after the customs officials and vehicles of the police and rangers on Tariq Road as they tried to carry out a raid during night time on Monday.
Tariq Road is one of the busiest commercial centres of Karachi and has numerous fabric and clothing shops in shopping malls and markets which are generally owned by Afghans, who have now settled down in the city after fleeing from their country.
A source in the customs vigilance confirmed the incident and said the team had gone with police and rangers back up after confirmed intelligence reports that smuggled cloth and fabrics worth millions of rupees were being sold by Afghan shop owners on Tariq Road.
Many of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan have established successful businesses in Karachi and other parts of the country and mostly focus on clothes, fabrics, carpets, curtains, and rug businesses. They own or rent shops in nearly all the major commercial centres and malls of Karachi.
A police official said the raid had nothing to do with the government announcement that Afghans living illegally in Pakistan had to return home by November 1 or would be sent back to Afghanistan forcibly after the deadline.
“It is a case of the smuggling that takes place between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the smuggled goods are sold openly in big markets of Karachi and other cities,” the SSP ranked officer, who declined to be named, said.
The video shows the Afghans running after the raiding party with sticks and then smashing and damaging glasses and bodies of vehicles in the area.
