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Rs 1 lakh fake currency seized
From Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

ATTARI, Feb 18 — Customs officials have seized fake Indian currency worth Rs 1 lakh from an Indian woman, third such big haul in a fortnight. It has exposed the nefarious designs of the Pakistan-sponsored agencies who want to destabilise India’s economy by pumping fake currency through the Samjhauta Express.

The currency was concealed in a special cavity between the two layers of her bag. The modus operandi of the Pakistani based money changers, who have been working at the behest of some intelligence agency in Pakistan, is that they have engaged couriers for carrying out their business.

The alleged culprit has been identified as Anno (50) a resident of Shamli in UP. Giving this information, Mr M S Arora, Joint Commissioner and Mr Rajesh Jindal, Deputy Commissioner (Customs) said the woman was to get Rs 1000 for delivering the bag to a ‘link’ in Delhi. She was handed over the bag by some unidentified person at Lahore who asked her to deliver it at a particular place in Delhi.

The Customs officials have sounded the Delhi Customs officials to nab the “link”.

They said the seizure could be effected due to “100 per cent checking” at checking counters at Attari railway station.

Talking to TNS, Anno said she was a widow and to earn her livelihood she was working as a carrier. She claimed that she was innocent as she did not know that the bag contained fake currency.

The Customs officials yesterday arrested two persons who were trying to carry Indian currency worth Rs 1 lakh to Pakistan through Samjhauta Express. Another Indian citizen brought Rs 78,000 from Pakistan. However, in these two cases the currency was not ‘fake’.

Earlier, the Customs officials had seized fake Indian currency worth Rs 1.02 lakh from three passengers of the Samjhauta Express including Wahid Ahmed, a Pakistani national, on February 3.

The interrogation of Anno revealed that the fake currency racket had the patronage of Government of Pakistan.

A senior Customs official who pleaded anonymity said the direct hand of the Government of Pakistan could not be ruled out as the passengers who come through the Samjhauta Express were not frisked properly by the Pakistani Customs.

Meanwhile, the Customs Department has stepped up vigil at the railway station during the arrival and departure of the train. The Customs officials have made special arrangements for educating the passengers about the presence of unscrupulous money changers at Lahore railway station who lure innocent passengers to exchange “fake Indian currency” on attractive rates. Special announcements are made through recorded cassettes at the railway station so that the passengers are aware of the “fake currency” racket.

India expels three Pak diplomats

NEW DELHI, Feb 18 (PTI) — India today expelled three staff members of the Pakistan High Commission here for “indulging in activities incompatible with their official status”.

Pakistan’s Acting Deputy High Commissioner Jalil Abbas Jilani was summoned by the External Affairs Ministry this afternoon and told that Mr Mohammad Khalil, Rana Mohammad Saghir and Mr Mohammad Amin be withdrawn from India by February 25, an official spokesman told mediapersons.

The spokesman did not give any further details about the activities of the three Pakistanis, except saying they had been “found indulging in activities incompatible with their official status”.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan summoned the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad to the foreign office on Friday and lodged a protest with him over the “uncivilised and inhuman” treatment of its diplomats in New Delhi, an official statement said.

According to the statement, Indian intelligence operatives picked up two Pakistani diplomats in New Delhi on Thursday, held them for five hours during which time they were “extensively interrogated”.

Pakistan also “deplored” the expulsion from India of three members of its diplomatic Mission in Delhi.