QUETTA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB)`s Balochistan chapter arrested two officials of the provincial food department on Tuesday on the charges of misappropriation of thousands of wheat bags.

NAB officials told Dawn that Deputy Director Abdul Fateh and Assistant Director Munir Ahmed Marri had been taken into custody after 74,000 bags of wheat were found missing from the stock at the Sariab Road godown of the department. The store`s official in charge Shakkar Khan had already been arrested.

Disappearance of a large quantity of wheat from the department`s godowns in different areas of the province had been detected, they said.

Sources said that during checking at the Sariab Road godown, over 74,000 bags of wheat were found missing and the arrested officials failed to give any reason for that.They said that shortage of wheat bags had also been detected in some other godowns but those responsible to look after the storage facilities could not be arrested because they had fled. NAB officials have seized the record.

`Arrest of more officials of the department is expected in a few days as an investigation has been launched against them,` the sources said.

The NAB authorities have asked the department`s officials to check the wheat stock in Hub, Turbat, Sibi, Chaman and other cities. A team of four officials will visit Hub in a few days.NAB is also investigating shortage of wheat in Chaman and Pishin.

Sources said that more than 300,000 bags had been found missing in the two godowns.

The bureau was also looking into the role of a former food minister in the case, the sources said.