Paying the price: Extortion threat down, but not out in K-P

Wealthy traders of Khazana area on outskirts of Peshawar worst affected

PESHAWAR: Last week, two hand grenade shells were found outside the house of a local MPA. It was a warning to him from extortionists to pay an amount of Rs5 million and implied that live grenades or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) could also find their way to the same location in case of a refusal.

Local police were quick to declare them as ‘toys’ placed there as some sort of practical joke. However, the emergence of grenade shells at the residence of the local MPA is not an isolated incident and reminds us that the menace of extortion is far from over in the Khyber-Pakhtunkwa (K-P).

On Warsak Road the marble factory of the K-P Assembly’s former speaker Kiramat Chagarmati has been shut for almost a year now. Truckers are reluctant to supply the factory with marble for fear of attacks on their vehicles. Chagarmati had refused to pay Rs10 million to extortionists, resulting in closure for an indefinite period of one of the most profitable marble processing plants in the K-P.

A few months ago, the PPP’s former MPA Tehmash Khan’s nephew was also shot and injured as extortionists had failed to get the money they demanded of him and wanted to warn him of the danger they could pose to those who refuse to oblige. Although the K-P police records show a considerable decline in the extortion trend as compared to the previous years, extortion is still a widespread phenomenon.

In the year 2016 so far, around 92 cases of extortion have been registered with the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) as compared to the 178 in 2015 and 344 in the year 2014. But this data does not show the real and complete picture as the FIRs are often not registered in most of the cases. The police’s response to such incidents is often limited to registering a daily dairy report commonly known as ‘roznamcha’.

The police station of Khazana on the outskirt of the city is without doubt the ‘richest’ in terms of these ‘roznamchas’. As per an unofficial estimate around 100 extortion cases have occurred in Khazana area alone in 2016. A large number of people living in this area hail from Mohmand Agency and these people are the prime target of militant groups engaged in extortion.

“They (extortionists) are a hard nut to crack. They call people and invite them for a chat in Lalpura district of Nangarhar, Afghanistan which has been the centre of Mohmand clans for the past several centuries,” said a police official on the condition of anonymity. He said these traders go to Torkham border and cross into Afghanistan where they are received by a militant who transports them to Lalpura where they are told about the list of their assets over a cup of green tea and then asked to donate for the worthy cause of Jihad.

“Most of the people strike a bargain and silently pay the amount. These traders are told that militants had spent considerable amount spying on them and collecting information, so no silly bargain is acceptable,” he added.

He said those who do not pay are targeted through IEDs. He cited the example of a famous fruit commission agent, Haji Kabul Khan, who was brutally killed in Gulbahar a few years back when he refused to pay.

“TTP splinter group Jamaatul Ahrar is the most aggressive of all these groups and it is the one which invented the method of inviting people to Afghanistan for a bargain. They are more than successful as nearly 70 per cent victims strike a bargain with them,” he said.

He said most of the victims were wealthy Mohmand traders but other people were also targeted. He claimed that the Haqqani network and Abu Huraira groups of Afghan Taliban were also active along with other factions of the TTP.

“Khazana, Yakatot and Hayatabad are some of the areas where residents often receive calls for extortion but we have also seen such cases in Badhaber, Mathra and other parts of the district,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2016.