Billions of Afghan coins said missing 01.10.2005 ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Tonnes of newly minted Afghan coins have gone missing while being transported to Afghanistan through Pakistan, a Pakistani newspaper and police said on Saturday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sought the help of his Pakistani counterpart, Pervez Musharraf, in unearthing the scam, the News newspaper said. An official at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad declined to comment on the report which said tonnes of two and five afghani coins (two and five pence), made in Germany and shipped through the Pakistani port of Karachi, had disappeared. "It was unbelievable to know that the containers were almost empty," the newspaper quoted an unidentified "source closely monitoring the situation" as saying. "Only nine tons out of 30 tons of coins were found in both the containers," the source said. Pakistani customs officials at the old Khyber Pass border crossing with Afghanistan noticed seals on two trucks carrying Afghan coins had been tampered with last week, said a police officer in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. Upon inspection, they found that about 20 tonnes of coins were missing, said the officer, who declined to be identified. The drivers of both trucks and their assistants escaped, the officer said. Afghanistan introduced small denomination coins to replace bank notes this year. swiss info << | >> |
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