KARACHI: Customs (Taxation & Anti-Smuggling) Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi issued non-bailable warrants for absconders named Muhammad Bilal S/o Salamat Ali, Muhammad Farooq S/o Muhammad Qasim and Muhammad Rafique alias Rafi booked in a case of attempting to smuggle donkey hides worth Rs127million from Lahore to Karachi for further smuggling to China.
During the hearing, Investigation Officer Aijaz Ali Khoso submitted an interim challan. It was established that arrested Chinese citizen Tu-zhong Xiao S/o Tu Shao, Syed Ehtisham Zaidi S/ o Syed Shamim Ahmed Zaidi, Muhammad Faisal Bhutto S/o Muhammad Ibrahim, Muhammad Jumman S/o Ameer Ali, Zeeshan Jan S/o Patrus, Daniyal Rahman S/o Muhammad Shakeel, Afshan W/o Ehtisham and absconders Muhammad Bilal S/o Salamat Ali, Muhammad Farooq S/o Muhammad Qasim and Muhammad Rafique alias Rafi are involved in the donkey hides’ smuggling scam.
Investigation officer further submitted that China is using donkey hides to produce medicine named Ejiao, which is useful in blood-related disease. The Ejiao is obtained from donkey’s Gilatin and owing to this reasons, China has become major importer of donkey hides. “A large number of donkey hides are being export to China and often illegal methods are adopted to make more profits. Due to such smuggling, Pakistan is facing shortfall in foreign exchange whereas its meat is also served to people in Islamic country.” Tu Zhong Xiao is the mastermind and main culprit in this case as he makes all the dealings and also responsible for investment and sending consignment outside the country.
According to the prosecution, local police recovered 4,986 donkey hides’ which were put inside 642 bags. The operation took place at a shop located in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Block-12, and handed over them to customs department for FIR and further investigation and during the investigation, it was revealed that the hides were brought illegally from Lahore for smuggling into China. “There were about eight hides in one sack and one hide is sold for approximately Rs25000.
After the hearing, court accepted the interim challan and issued non-bailable warrants for accused absconder mentioned in the interim challan.
