KARACHI: The MCC Preventive has arrested a person for attempting to smuggle gold slabs into the country and seized the commodity worth Rs2.64 million. An FIR to this effect has been lodged and investigations are underway.
On the directives of Collector Preventive Tariq Huda, Additional Collector AFU Tahir Qureshi and Assistant Collector Wasif Malik have initiated a campaign against the gold smuggling into the country and smuggling of currency out of the country in particular.
According to the details of the case, credible information was received by SPS Tahir Rashid to the effect that an attempt of smuggling of gold would be made by a passenger namely Syed Asif Abbas Zaidi travelling by Shaheen Airline’s Flight No. NL-737 from Dubai to Karachi.
Strict surveillance was maintained on the passengers of the said flight and later the above named passenger was intercepted after having been cleared from Immigration Counter who travelled with-out baggage except a hand Trolley bag.
He was brought to customs examination area where he was asked to declare whether he was carrying any contraband goods in his bag or on his person. On his refusal, hand Trolley bag was thoroughly searched but nothing objectionable was recovered.
Since specific information existed, he was afforded an opportunity of being searched before a Magistrate or Gazetted Officer but he did not opt for that. Therefore, his personal search was conducted in the presence of two witnesses and recovered six slabs of gold (three slabs each wrapped, in white paper pasted with adhesive scotch under each foot) weighing ten tolas each, total 60 tolas.
The goods so recovered were seized along-with a pair of shoes as containers and traveling documents of the passenger.