ISLAMABAD: The anti-smuggling unit of Rawalpindi Directorate General of Customs Intelligence and Investigation (I & I) raided a warehouse in Fazayia Colony near Islamabad Airport and seized non-custom paid electronic items including air-conditions, refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens and LCD televisions worth billion rupees.
The consignment was imported under cloak of Afghan transit trade and later smuggled into Pakistan illegally. It is being described as one of the biggest raids carried out by the Rawalpindi Customs authorities in the current year.
As per details, the anti-smuggling unit of the Rawalpindi Customs Directorate was tipped off that a large number of electronic appliances worth billions rupees had been smuggled into Pakistan from Afghanistan which had been hidden in the warehouse of a private postal service. Tax amount of Rs3 billion is being estimated to have been evaded through the smuggling of these electronic appliances.
The Customs Anti-smuggling Unit under the command of Deputy Director Shahid Jan raided the warehouse and recovered 800 split AC units, 46 washing machines, 6 LCD screens, refrigerators and microwave ovens.
Rawalpindi Director of Customs Intelligence Chaudhry Zulfiqar and Additional Director Muhammad Saleem were monitoring the raid. The smuggled electronic items are said to be property of a trader namely Ghazanfar Gul.
Meanwhile, when the police interrogated the arrested workers and asked the trader about the legal status of the seized items, they expressed their complete ignorance about their presence in the warehouse. It is to be noted that stickers of Afghan Transit Trade were glued on the boxes of impounded items. After the raid, the high-ups of Customs Intelligence also visited the warehouse.
