Police rescue teen abducted by Facebook ‘friend’

Law enforcers raid house near Hub, kill four abductors.

KARACHI:

The police rescued on Monday a teenager who had been kidnapped by a stranger he befriended on Facebook.

The seeds of the crime were sown when the abducted teenager, 13-year-old Mustafa Rizwan, met Taimur, a former Customs official’s son, on the popular social networking site. While talking to The Express Tribune, the kidnapped teenager said, “I first started chatting with Taimur’s youngest brother, Arsalan, on Facebook. Through him I met Taimur online and we became friends.” For over six months, the ‘friendship’ blossomed in the cyber world and the two never met in person - until last Friday. Taimur had invited Mustafa - a seventh grader at a private school in Defence Housing Authority’s Phase IV - out to lunch after class. “I told my family not to send the driver to pick me up from school as I was going to hang out with a friend and he would drop me home later,” said Mustafa. And so Taimur, who lived in the same neighbourhood the school is located in, turned up. “I thought Arsalan would also be there, but he [Taimur] whisked me away in a car to his four accomplices’ hideout,” the abducted teenager added.

Then, Mustafa’s family started getting the dreaded calls. The kidnappers demanded Rs50 million from them. They threatened to kill him if the family rang up the police or if they failed to pay up.

But the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) tagged up with the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) and soon they were hot on the suspects’ heels. Their investigation led them straight to Taimur, who they detained for questioning. He told the law enforcers that his accomplices had detained Mustafa in a house near Hub, Balochistan.



The police then raided the spot on Monday. AVCC chief Niaz Khosa said, “We were attacked as soon as we reached the hideout. Two of my jawans and Taimur were wounded.” The law enforcers responded with gunfire and killed all four kidnappers.

The killed men were between the ages of 25 and 35. Two of them were identified as Majid Rehmat, a resident of Lyari, and Imtiaz Azam, a resident of Mawach Goth. The two other suspects have yet to be identified. Their bodies were taken to the Edhi morgue.

Learning lessons

At their residence in Bahadurabad, Mustafa’s parents had a message for others: don’t leave children unsupervised on the internet. “Facebook should be banned,” said Mustafa’s mother. “I request parents to never let their children make friends on Facebook. Today it happened with my son. Tomorrow it could happen to yours.”

While talking to The Express Tribune, CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy said, “This incident should remind people never to befriend strangers. Parents should be more aware of what is happening in their children’s lives.”

Signs of remorse?

Taimur, 25, who had just finished Matric from a private school in Defence, had made a deal with the kidnappers. He wanted half the ransom for handing over Mustafa to them. “My father is a noble person. Nobody from my family - even my youngest brother Arsalan - was aware of my intentions to kidnap the teenager,” said Taimur. “I know criminals in Lyari because of my bad habits, such as taking drugs.” He said when he started chatting with Mustafa and got to know about his background, he decided to earn money and started scheming with his accomplices. “My role was only to call the boy and hand him over to my friends,” he explained. “It was life’s biggest mistake.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2013