451 illegal fuel stations sealed in Sindh

As many as 451 illegally established fuel stations have been sealed in Sindh, while 205 criminal cases have been lodged against their operators.

The information to this effect was passed on to the participants of a meeting of the provincial Anti-Smuggling Task Force on Thursday with Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah in the chair.

Attending the meeting, Customs officials identified 15 smuggled goods which were being illegally brought from Iran, Afghanistan and India and being locally sold in different cities of Pakistan. These included Gutka, betel nuts, tyres, cigarettes, electronic items, automobile spare parts and cosmetics.

The Sindh police and Rangers in the financial year 2020-21 conducted 1,279 raids in the province and seized smuggled goods worth Rs 8,314 million, the meeting was told. The chief secretary said there was a need to increase operations of law-enforcement agencies against smuggling, and, for the purpose, an awareness campaign should be conducted both on mainstream and social media to make people fully aware about the menace of smuggling.

He asked Additional Chief Secretary Home Department Qazi Shahid Pervez to form a WhatsApp group comprising the focal persons of all the anti-smuggling organisations for better coordination for such operations. He said that intelligence-based operations should be conducted by the LEAs concerned to firmly take action against the menace of smuggling.