Strict action sought against illegal gold mining, smuggling in KP

NOWSHERA: The caretaker provincial and federal governments and Task Force on anti-gold smuggling were asked on Sunday to take action against the illegal gold mining in the Kabul and Indus rivers.

Talking to The News, former nazim Shad Muhammad Khan, Falak Niaz Khan and others elders said that Kabul and Indus rivers were flowing in Nowshera, which contained gold in the sediments and sands.

They said that now the winter was setting in and the miners were flexing their muscles to launch illegal mining of gold and other precious particles in the Kabul and Indus rivers.

“The economy of the country would flourish by leaps and bounds if the mining of gold was regulated in the Kabul and Indus rivers,” Shad Muhammad Khan said, adding that illegal gold mining was causing huge losses to the national and provincial exchequers.

The elders alleged that over 600 excavators were busy in illegal extraction of gold and other precious minerals at various points in both the rivers but the district administration, police and the Mines and Minerals Department had failed to control the illegal mining.

Giving a rough estimate, they said that a single excavator could mine from two three tolas gold in a day, which were later being smuggled to Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, China and others countries

They said that influential people were involved in the illegal mining, which needed to be dealt with an iron hand by framing strict laws and their implementation in letter and spirit.

The elders said that they had filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court against the illegal mining in the Kabul and Indus rivers.

The court, they added, gave a verdict in favour of the Mines and Minerals Department and directed its officials to make blocks and auction them to generate revenue for the cash strapped Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The elders appealed to the caretaker prime minister, chief minister, officials of Task Force on anti-gold smuggling and Mines and Minerals Department to take action against the illegal mining and smuggling of gold in Nowshera and elsewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.