Customs seizes Rs541m smuggled tyres, other goods in godown raid

The Pakistan Customs Collectorate Enforcement on Tuesday announced the seizure of Rs541 million smuggled tyres which had been tampered with and sold in the market by a mafia.

Syed Irfan Ali, a spokesman for the customs, said that in pursuant to directives of the FBR chairman and member customs (operations), acting on credible information that a huge quantity of smuggled tyres had been brought to Karachi and dumped at a godown in the Mauripur area.

The informer further divulged that in order to ensure safe transportation to the local market and upcountry and to defraud the customs’ en route checking mechanism, smugglers were using different embossing and alteration instruments to change the specifications, serial numbers, sizes and manufacturing dates to make them exactly as per the guidelines of other imported consignments.

He added that keeping in view the sensitivity of the issue, a search warrant under Section 162 of the Customs Act, 1969, was obtained from a judicial magistrate, District West. A thorough and long search was carried out, which resulted in the recovery of smuggled goods.

The seized goods were: 45,000 mixed tyres made in Malaysia and worth Rs225 million of various vehicles; 10,000 Thailand and China buses’ tyres worth Rs300 million; 15 dumper and excavator tyres made in China worth Rs4.5 million; 10,400 liters of diesel engine oil (prepared in Malaysia) worth Rs8.32 million; and 2,752 liters of hydraulic oil (made in Malaysia) worth Rs3.3 million. The total value of the seized goods is estimated to be around Rs541.12 million.

The customs spokesman said the quantity was as per the inventory and would increase upon the finalisation of inventory. Moreover, goods are unprecedentedly huge in number and have been shifted to the state warehouse.

An FIR has been lodged and final statistics will be shared after the issuance of the seizure report. Despite the lapse of a considerable time, neither any claimant came forward nor documents of lawful imports and possession of any kind were produced, and this shows the goods were smuggled beyond any doubt. One person, namely Shahnawaz Khan, tried to cause hindrance on account of his claim as owner of the godown. He has been arrested and is under five days’ physical remand granted by the special judge, customs, taxation & anti-smuggling, Karachi.

LeJ militant arrested

The Counter-Terrorism Department of the Sindh Police arrested a suspected militant of a banned sectarian outfit in Karachi on Tuesday. Mir Ali Haider alias Mir Ali Nawaz was caught during a raid conducted on a tip-off in Khamiso Goth in New Karachi Industrial Area, and a pistol was found on him, the CTD spokesperson said.

During the initial interrogation, the suspect admitted that he and all of his family members were associated with the Balochistan chapter of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), and that one of his brothers, Jamal Khan, had been killed in a police encounter in Balochistan in 2011. Haider said his another brother, Mubashir, had been arrested in a police encounter in Quetta in 2015.