KHYBER AGENCY - Customs officials foiled two separate bids to smuggle foreign currency from Pakistan to Afghanistan at Torkham border and seized a huge amount of foreign currency from their possession during the last 24 hours.

In the first incident, the customs officials on information, here on Tuesday early morning, raided a locality and seized foreign currency included Saudi riyals, UAE dirhams, and US$ worth hundreds of thousands of Pakistani rupees.

The second alleged smuggling attempt was made on Monday night in which a huge amount was also seized from the suspects.

According to the details, the customs officials arrested three alleged currency smugglers the customs officials said, adding that two of them are said to Afghan and one local resident.

Three suspected currency smugglers have been identified as Shamel Khan, Jidatullah, and Saeed.

Customs Superintendent Naeem Khan here told that the raids were made on the direction of Collector Peshawar that some suspects would make attempts of currency smuggling from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

After his directions, strict security measures were adopted and the officials put on high-alert at the Pak-Afghan sharing border Torkham.

He said on Monday night, 0.1 million Saudi riyals and 0.1 million UAE dirham were recovered from an Afghanistan-bound passenger, during a routine checking. The currency was concealed in the baggage of the passenger. The officials also took the passenger into custody and seized the currency during his baggage search.

Similarly, in another incident occurred on Tuesday, 0.4 million Saudi Riyal and 40,000 US dollars were recovered from an Afghan ‘currency smuggler’ who was taking illegally to Afghanistan.

The seized currency and the alleged smugglers have been shifted to the customs house in Peshawar for further investigation, the official said.