FIA recovers foreign currency worth millions from suspected hoarders,
LARKANA: Local administration has recovered 30 thousand bags of wheat from Rice Mills, private godowns and shops in the district,
Larkana district administration has also recovered over 1100 bags of sugar, officials said.
Moreover, five trailers and trucks carrying thousands of fertilizer bags have also been seized, officials said.
The district administration has sealed two privately owned rice mills in Badah over hoarding of wheat, “Around 60,000 bags of wheat, fertilizer and sugar, have been recovered from Larkana district in past few days, administration added.
Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti on Sunday said the government will take stern action against those involved in smuggling and hoarding, particularly of essential commodities like wheat, sugar, urea, oil, and dollars.
Speaking at a press conference Islamabad, Bugti outlined that the crackdown against smuggling and hoarding had been in progress for the past week, resulting in significant achievements.
Thousands of tons of urea and sugar had already been seized across the country. The minister revealed that as authorities intensified the operation against smuggling, some miscreants began hoarding wheat and sugar to create artificial shortages and profit from higher prices later. He said the government has launched a comprehensive crackdown against all such elements.
While,
Amid a countrywide crackdown against currency hoarders, the Federal Investigation Agency Lahore recovered foreign currency worth more than Rs15 million and Rs68.1 million local currency from suspected hoarders.
The investigation agency arrested three suspects, identified as Mazhar Shafqat, Zeeshan and Salman from Circular Road in Lahore while raids are being carried out to arrest Azhar Shafqat, the prime suspect.
The FIA recovered $4,655, 16,015 Euros, 17,740 UAE Dirham, 49,362 Saudi Riyal, 790 Canadian dollars, 2,650 Turkish Lira and 4,880 British Pounds from the suspects.
According to the FIA, the suspects were dealing in the currency on a private basis after their exchange licence was revoked. They were earlier dealing in the currency market through the Omega Money Exchange.
On September 10, the FIA Multan recovered SR100,000 from a suspected currency smuggler during an operation as the authorities intensified the crackdown against currency hoarders.
Identified as Mohammad Aleem, the accused was a resident of Okara, Punjab and was travelling to Quetta when the FIA recovered the foreign currency during an operation at the Ghazi Ghat checkpost in Punjab.
Amid an exorbitant increase in the value of the dollar, the authorities launched a massive crackdown against the hoarding of dollars, sources said.
Reports also circulated that the authorities were planning to scan bank lockers using special devices across the country, however, officials from the State Bank of Pakistan and FIA clarified that reports about scanning bank lockers were false.
“The SBP has not initiated any such move, nor is it possible to scan lockers from the outside,” Dawn newspaper quoted the SBP’s chief spokesperson as saying.
A nexus between illegal money-exchanges and bankers has been exposed in investigations by various agencies,
Illegal money-exchanges have orchestrated a nexus with various banks for money hoarding, sources said. “Islamabad’s 78 bankers and cashiers have been involved in this illegal arrangement,” according to sources.
The bankers have arranged lockers in cahoots with the people involved in illegal business, sources said. Sources claimed that Crores of dollars have been deposited in these lockers.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other agencies have expanded scope of the probe pertaining to these lockers and which have now been sealed, sources said.
According to sources, an apartment at a private shopping mall has also been sealed after disclosure about presence of millions of dollars in the premises. “An agent residing in the apartment has escaped,” sources added.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.