PESHAWAR, Dec 4: Frontier Customs Agents Group, Peshawar, on Wednesday demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to ensure security of cargo trucks transporting goods to Afghanistan under the Afghan Transit Trade via the province.

It also asked the government to deploy security personnel at toll plazas to ensure that the trucks en route to Afghanistan with regular trade and ATT items are not stopped (by protesters).

In a news release issued here, chairman of the group Ziaul Haq Sarhadi and senior vice president Arooj Ahmad Ansari said commercial cargo and ATT goods en route to Afghanistan were being stopped under the garb of blocking Nato supplies, which was a matter of concern for business community.

They said the instances of breaking the cargo containers’ official seals (by protesters) had been negatively affecting Pak-Afghan trade.

The two said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should deploy officials at all toll plazas to make sure smooth passage of trucks carrying commercial and ATT goods.

They said protesters should know the difference between commercial/ATT goods and Nato supplies to ensure no harm to trade between the two countries.

Mr Sarhadi, who is also a director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Pakistan had already lost 80 per cent of the ATT business to Iran due to the signing of the new Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement in Oct 2010.

“We would lose the remaining 20 per cent of the ATT business because of this (road blockade) act,” he said.

The chairman of the Frontier Customs Agents Group said if the prevalent situation continued, there were chances that Afghanistan might sign a trade treaty with India and Iran to use the latter’s port in Chah Bahar, which was 44 kilometers from Pakistan’s seaport in Gwadar.

“India already wants to use that trade link to access Central Asian Republics and there are clear indications that the three countries sign the trade treaty,” he said.