LAHORE - After lifelong paralysis of his son in two murder attempts, a Customs Intelligence officer is still being threatened by influential smugglers allegedly involved in tax evasion of millions of rupees.

Mian Yasin is conducting investigation against some accused in a tax evasion case (No 18/14) registered with the Customs Intelligence Lahore.

The senior Customs officers have left him in the lurch and at the mercy of the smugglers, he said. As per the aggrieved officer, the accused used to replace high valued goods with low valued ones and cause a loss of Rs250 million by tax evasion in each container. They have replaced such goods from 200 containers so far, he said.

On August 17, 2014, the case was registered against Jamshed and Subhani brothers and others, and the officer got arrest warrants for the accused on October 15, 2015. The same night the accused attacked Yasin’s car and sprayed bullets. However, the officer was not present as his son Mian Mohsin Yasin was aboard the car. Mohsin received three bullets in his right arm and became paralysed for life. A case was registered with Johar Town police against the accused and police during investigation declared the accused guilty. The accused requested to the DIG to change the investigation and in the meanwhile committed another murder attempt on the intelligence officer in Sahiwal district where another FIR was registered against the accused.

During the investigation, DSP Asif Ranjha declared the accused guilty once again. The Customs Intelligence officer claimed that two former director generals of Customs Intelligence - Lutafullah Virk and Imtiaz Ahmad Khan - and former director Masood Imran backed him fully and requested the CCPO Lahore to ensure justice in the case. However, he added, current DG Shoukat Ali was not taking any interest in the case. Yasin added that rather the current DG sent him on hard posting to Mradan.

He believed that the accused were still engaged in evasion of taxes worth billions of rupees. Now, they were hurling murder threats on him and the third FIR was registered against them with Johar Town police station on March 25, 2018 under D Telegraph Act -25.

They are demanding the intelligence officer not to pursue the case against them, he said. “I have also put the issue into the notice of Chief justice of Pakistan, NAB chairman and FBR chairman two months back but to no avail,” he said while talking to The Nation on Wednesday.

He said that the accused were facing 24 cases including 12 of tax evasion and 12 of criminal nature most of them registered under sections 302, 324 and 13-20 -65. Even then, he added, as they were very influential roaming freely. “By leaving officers at the mercy of smugglers, morale of the Customs Intelligence team has gone down and no customs intelligence officer dares nab smugglers,” Yasin maintained.

Despite various attempts, the Customs Intelligence director general could receive repeated calls made on his mobile phone nor he replied to the SMSs sent to his cell phone.