Pakistan seizes 90,000 bags of smuggled flour
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Written by quqnoos
PAKISTAN’S Frontier Corps (FC) says it has seized about 90,000 bags of flour from smugglers trying to bring the food into Afghanistan during the last 10 days of March.
Since the government declared flour smuggling illegal, hundreds of smugglers have been arrested, a government statement said Saturday (April 5).
Last week in the Mohmand Agency, the FC seized 500 bags of flour in one day, which amounts to about 30,000kg of wheat, exposing a flour-smuggling racket that led to scores of arrests.
Afghan businessmen at a recent meeting of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry lashed out at the government for failing to stop the FC from seizing legal imports of flour.
Residents in Kabul, and many other provinces, are suffering because of dramatic increases in the cost of basic food, such as flour and bread.
A 50kg bag of flour has risen by about Afg200 in the last month and the cost of bread has almost doubled in the capital over the same period, leaving many Kabulis unable to afford it.
PAKISTAN’S Frontier Corps (FC) says it has seized about 90,000 bags of flour from smugglers trying to bring the food into Afghanistan during the last 10 days of March.
Since the government declared flour smuggling illegal, hundreds of smugglers have been arrested, a government statement said Saturday (April 5).
Last week in the Mohmand Agency, the FC seized 500 bags of flour in one day, which amounts to about 30,000kg of wheat, exposing a flour-smuggling racket that led to scores of arrests.
Afghan businessmen at a recent meeting of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry lashed out at the government for failing to stop the FC from seizing legal imports of flour.
Residents in Kabul, and many other provinces, are suffering because of dramatic increases in the cost of basic food, such as flour and bread.
A 50kg bag of flour has risen by about Afg200 in the last month and the cost of bread has almost doubled in the capital over the same period, leaving many Kabulis unable to afford it.
