Fayaz Bukhari
Salamabad (Uri), Mar 11: The two X-ray machines installed at Salamabad Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC) in Uri of North Kashmir for scanning the goods that are imported from Pakistan through trans-Line of Control (LoC) trade are non-functional for past one week.
For past one week the goods are scanned manually increasing the risk of smuggling of drugs, fake currency and explosives through the trans-LoC trade.
A trade official told Excelsior that the two X-ray machines at Salamabad are defunct only a month after over 9 kilogrammes of brown sugar was recovered from a Pakistani truck at Salamabad last month. Last year 113 kilogrammes of brown sugar were recovered from another truck.
The Salamabad Trade Centre also lacks a dog trained in detecting the contraband. The only dog that is with the security wing of the police is meant for detecting explosives and that dog is also in bad shape as he is not being looked after well.
A TFC official said that there is need of a full body truck scanner that can detect the explosives, drugs and fake currency if smuggled through the trans-LoC trade. “The trade has been on since 2008 but the scanner is yet to be installed. This speaks volumes about the seriousness of the officials at the helm of affairs”, he added.
A security official told Excelsior that they are manually conducting random checking of the goods. “It has successes rate of only 10 percent. Majority of the times there are chances of the contraband or fake currency etc slipping through the process”, he adds.
“Since we are trained to suspect everything, it led to seizure of drugs last month. The packing of some of the orange cartons was different from others that led to suspicion and finally seizure of the drugs. We need modern gadgetry to deal with the criminal elements who are trying to smuggle drugs, fake currency and explosives”, the security official said.
A TFC official said that there is urgent need of streamlining of the trade so that criminal elements may not use it for their own ends. He said that majority of the traders have multiple licenses in the name of their family members that needs to be discouraged. “The traders’ background also needs to be checked”, he added.
A trader, Ashfaq Ahmad, said that they suffer huge losses in absence of the full truck body scanners as the goods that are physically checked suffer damages both at Chakoti and Salamabad. “We have been always demanding that full truck body scanners be installed at Salamabad so that the genuine traders don’t suffer”, he added.
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