Customs inspector suspended for helping smugglers

LAHORE: The Collectorate of Customs has suspended a customs inspector and three constables after they were found to be involved in helping smugglers kidnap customs officials and taking bribes.

A Customs Anti-smuggling Organisation (CASO) team reportedly arrested two smugglers on January 24, involved in the kidnapping of two constables from CASO office on January 13.

A CASO team raided a godown on Ravi Road and confiscated export quality cloth and other smuggled items worth millions of rupees. Later, when the two constables, Muhammad Aslam and Aslam Awan, were going to submit the smuggled items to the customs warehouse, the smugglers and their accomplices kidnapped them with the seized items. The smugglers took the constables to Peshawar but released them after the government’s intervention.

The CASO team raided Timber Market on Ravi Road on January 24 and arrested the smugglers, Zulmay Khan and Gull Khan, and recovered three trucks loaded with 103 sacks of smuggled Indian betel nuts.

During investigations, the accused revealed that they gave Rs 200,000 to Customs Inspector Muhammad Saleem and Rs 50,000 to the three constables. But some other officials caught their items on which Mr Saleem advised them to snatch the items.

After the statement of the two smugglers, Customs Collector Raza Baqir directed Assistant Collector Tayyaba Kiani to hold an inquiry into the matter, who declared Inspector Saleem guilty. —Staff Report

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