Truck with goods for ‘US embassy’ seized – By Munawer Azeem
– DAWN
ISLAMABAD, June 5: Police here on Saturday seized a truck loaded with military-related goods, including ammunition, and arrested two people who claimed that the consignment belonged to the US embassy.
A police party intercepted the truck at a checkpoint on the Faisal Avenue near Zero Point and during search found uniforms, bullet-proof jackets, helmets, daggers and dozens of magazines of M-16 rifle and 9-MM pistol.
The arrested men, Lal Badshah and Noshad Pashtoon, told police they were coming from Peshawar, where a contractor Tariq had hired them for transporting the goods to Islamabad.
They said the goods were loaded on the truck in a house in Peshawars University Town by four Americans.
“They gave us the telephone number of a man who, according to them, is an official of the US Embassy. We were instructed to call the man after reaching Islamabad for delivery of the consignment,” Badshah and Pashtoon said.
Police said that after recording the statements, they contacted the embassy, but “it did not own the consignment”.
Police then registered a case under the Arms Ordinance.
Sources said that officials of the US Office of Defence Representative in Pakistan later contacted police and claimed ownership of the consignment.
They claimed that the goods were being brought for the training of Frontier Corps.
They, however, did not produce any documentary evidence.
Sunday, 06 Jun, 2010
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