A meeting was held at Paindi Lalma in Mullagori area on Sunday and was attended by a large number of local tribesmen, social workers and political activists. Speaking on the occasion, PML-N Khyber Agency general secretary Ikramullah Jan Kukikhel said smuggling of the non-custom paid goods worth billion of rupees was taking place under the nose of the political administration.

He criticised a local political official and said the money taken from the trucks was being distributed among the pro-administration elders. The PML-N leader said that every day at least 25 to 40 trucks loaded with smuggled teabags, auto spare parts, fabrics, timber, dry milk, ghee, cooking oil, Chinese and Iranian food worth millions of rupees were entering Jamrud and Mullagori without paying any tax to the government.

He said that despite the fact that the Khassadars’ checkposts had been set up on these routes, some pro-administration elders with the consent of the officials had also established a checkpost at the Marble Chowk in Mullagori area where they take Rs800 from each truck in the name of the local committee. “But the money goes to the pockets of a few people only,” he alleged.

Nisar Mullagori, who runs an NGO, said the Swat Scouts, a wing of the Frontier Crops stationed in Mullagori, had taken illegal electricity connections from their power supply lines due to which they were suffering almost 22-hour loadshedding in the area.