Pakistan Coast Guards crack down on foreign liquor smuggling

Sources reveal 2,586 bottles of liquor and beer of foreign origin were seized from Kumb area near Pak-Iran border.

KARACHI: Pakistan Coast Guards on Tuesday seized a huge cache of foreign liquor in a successful raid.

They said 2,586 bottles of liquor and beer of foreign origin were seized from Kumb area of Balochistan near the Pak-Iran border.

A special investigation team of Pakistan Coast Guards initiated the probe further.

In ongoing crackdowns against liquor entering the country, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) earlier suspended 22 junior officials of the Customs Department in a liquor smuggling case and decided to expand the scope of their investigation to Dubai to plug the origin of the illegal business that has cost millions to the national exchequer.

In June 2010, media reports claimed that over 11,000 containers had disappeared en-route to Afghanistan.

These reports also suggested that the containers were carrying goods for the International Security Assistance Force and Nato troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Later, the FBR clarified that only 43 containers had disappeared and admitted that liquor had been smuggled by being misrepresented as regular beverages.

The FBR has accepted that forged documents were used to clear containers through Karachi port by using the manual clearance system.

Closing the border

Iran is constructing a long fence along its borders with Pakistan as part of a broader strategy to block entry of drug-traffickers and terrorists into the country.

The Iran-Pakistan barrier is a separation barrier which Iran has started building along its border with Pakistan replacing an irregular tattered border fence. The 3 ft thick and 10 ft high concrete wall, fortified with steel rods, will span the 700 km stretching from Taftan to Mand.

The project will include large earth and stone embankments and deep ditches to deter illegal crossings and drug smuggling into Iran. The border region is already dotted with police observation towers and fortress-style garrisons for troops.