KHYBER: The customs authorities seized 70,000 US dollars from the cook of the border security force at Torkham the other day.

Officials said that a sepoy of the customs department arrested Zakriya, a cook of the official mess of the border security force, when he was trying to hand over two packets full of US dollars to an unknown Afghan national at the border zero crossing point.

They said while the Afghan managed to flee back to his country, Zakriya was taken into custody and $70,000 were recovered from his possession.

The officials said that investigations were underway to ascertain how an employ of a law enforcement agency was involved in currency smuggling at Torkham.

This was the second incident where government officials were found involved in currency smuggling in the last few days as customs officials had arrested two members of their own staff – an inspector and a sepoy – for their alleged involvement in smuggling US dollars to Afghanistan.

Both the cases were later handed over to Federal Investigation Agency for investigations.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2024