After the Pahalgam terror attack, the Government of India imposed a complete ban on direct or indirect imports of goods of Pakistan origin on 2 May 2025. Under this, the Revenue Intelligence Directorate (DRI) introduced ‘Operation Deep Manifest’, under which the goods coming from Pakistan are constantly being monitored and seized.

As part of this campaign, Mumbai DRI seized 28 containers at Nhawa Sheva Port, including cosmetics and dried dates of Pakistan origin. The price of 800 metric tonnes of goods seized has been estimated at around Rs 12 crore.

Open violation of government sanctions

These goods were sourced by three Indian importers, who openly violated the sanctions imposed by the government. Investigation revealed that this goods was declared by the wrong declare by Dubai (Jable Ali Port), while its real origin was Pakistan.

In the case of dried dates, a Dubai-based supplier, who had transpired dates from Pakistan through fake invoice, has been arrested. The entire network was running through a complex transaction between traders of Pakistan, India and UAE. The arrested supplier is a citizen of India and while working on commission, he also took financial transactions to Pakistan through his firms.

National security also threatened

A custom broker has been arrested in the case of cosmetics, who made a wrong announcement and carried out the smuggling of cosmetics of Pakistan origin. Earlier in July 2025, DRI seized 1,115 metric tonnes of goods from 39 containers under this operation, which was worth Rs 9 crore and that importer was arrested.

Despite this, some importer are resorting to fake documents and wrong announcements to ignore the restrictions. DRI believes that such illegal imports not only cause economic loss, but also pose a serious threat to national security through a network associated with Pakistan.

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