Just hold on we’re going home: The curious case of a kidnapping

Amir Khan and his friend were released after four months, Rs3.5m later.

KARACHI:

Make a deal with the kidnappers, is what the police told the family of two businessmen who were kidnapped from Hub last year.

“They told us to pay the ransom first,” said family members while referring to the police. “They said that they would take action once our loved ones are safely recovered.”

While talking to The Express Tribune, the family admitted it wasn’t so easy getting the men back.

They had approached a law and order facility to help them find the men. Once, however, the family, with help from the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee got hold of the phone records and managed to trace the kidnappers, the authorities did not take any action. The family, in the end, had no option but to pay a ransom of Rs3.5 million to get the men back.

The kidnapping

It was a tough time for businessman Abdul Rasheed and his family. His brother Amir Khan and friend, Nasir Khan Afridi, were kidnapped from the family farmhouse near Muhammad Ali Rind Goth on Hub Road on December 29, 2013, within the jurisdiction of the Manghopir police station. Khan was eventually recovered after more than four months of waiting, phone calls and negotiations.

Around midnight that day in December last year, eight to nine men broke into the farmhouse and took the two men away by force. For a while they heard nothing till a week later a phone call was received.

According to Rasheed, after his brother was kidnapped the authorities provided them with a phone that was under their observation. “The kidnappers called me around 65 times,” he said while talking to The Express Tribune. “Every phone call lasted at least an hour or two. Initially the phone calls came from Hub Chowki Link Road.” He added that the authorities were constantly monitoring the phone calls and could have solved the case by tracing the suspects through caller ID but never did so despite repeated requests.

The above map shows the locations of the mobile towers from where the families of the kidnapping victims received telephone calls. SOURCE: CPLC

“SP Ghulam Subhani Khunharo who used to work with the Anti-Violent Crime Cell and the SHO of Manghopir police station Ghulam Hussain Korani were forcing us to pay Rs70 million to the kidnappers,”  said Rasheed while talking about his brother’s kidnapping. “They said that if we didn’t pay up, the kidnappers would kill my brother and his friend.” He added that soon after his brother was picked up they started receiving ransom calls from Hub and then Jacobabad.

The phone towers, he said, from where they were getting the calls were traced to Garhi Khairo in Jacobabad district and adjoining areas. He claimed that they had received information that the kidnappers had sold Khan and his friend to a third party who were asking for the money now.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Rasheed said that during the negotiation process the kidnappers had suggested that he talk to Abdul Ghafoor Thaheem, a landlord in Jacobabad to seal the deal.

When the deal goes down

Rasheed went to Jacobabad to meet the man mentioned by his brother’s abductors. Once he got there, he said they went to a small village where Thaheem lived. The village, he claimed, was heavily guarded by private security guards.

The two men could not talk much as Thaheem took charge of the conversation and told Rasheed that he knew the family had money and they [the kidnappers] would not settle for anything less than Rs70 million.

As soon as Rasheed came back to Karachi, he told the CID DIG Sultan Khwaja about the meeting and the DIG immediately sent men to search Thaheem’s house and arrest him.



“After the arrest, SP Ghulam Subhani Khunharo and SHO Korai started pressurising us for a compromise,” said Rasheed. “When we refused to comply with, the police framed weak charges against Thaheem and he was released on bail within a couple of days.” He added that eventually they realised that the only way they would get his brother back was by paying the ransom.

It was decided that Khan and his friend would be released after the family paid the kidnappers Rs3.5 million in cash on April 11, 2014 near Hub.

The other side of the tale

According to DIG Khwaja, the police had arrested more than a dozen people on a complaint filed by Rasheed’s family. He said that they could not interfere with the case if the family strikes a deal with the kidnappers. He added that during the interrogation, Thaheem had confessed that he was not involved in the kidnapping but his guards had made the ransom call. While giving his side of the story, Thaheem told The Express Tribune that he had nothing to do with the case or criminal activities. “I am a 70-year-old man,” he said. “Why would the court release me on bail if I had done something wrong?”

SP Khunharo was suspended over negligence at work but was quick to defend himself and Thaheem. He claimed that the kidnapping case was just a dispute between two business partners.

In chains: The victim speaks

Amir Khan and his friend Nasir Khan Afridi were kidnapped from a farmhouse on Hub Road after Isha in December last year. For four months they were separated from their families and tortured.

"The kidnappers used to torture us, make us cry and then call our family to demand ransom," said Amir Khan. "After they kidnapped us, we were blindfolded and handcuffed. Then they hit us and made us walk into a jungle on foot." He added that they crossed the Northern Bypass near Hub and stopped outside a village which was an hour away.

Once there, the kidnappers made Khan and Afridi hide in a ditch. "We could hear women calling their children to take food for us," said Khan. "The children would usually play near the place we were kept. Many people from the village used to come and watch cockfights in the village." He added that during those four months, they were moved at least four times but no matter where they were taken, they were always made to stay in a trench covered with bamboo sticks with no place to sit.



If they had to go to the bathroom, Khan said, they were taken to the bushes where their kidnappers would stand nearby and make small talk with each other.

According to Afridi, they were fed once a day and their meals were mostly vegetarian. "They told us that nothing would happen to us but when the police arrested the man from Jacobabad, they got angry," he said. "They started torturing us more and threatened to kill us. They even forced us to make calls to ask our family to arrange for the ransom money."

One day, he said, the leader of the gang came to us and was smiling. "He told us that there was good news," said Afridi. "On April 11 around midnight, they took us away in a jeep and left us in the middle of what we thought was nowhere." He added that their kidnappers told them to keep walking and never, ever, turn back.

Khan and Afridi did not turn back. They kept walking till their feet hurt. An hour later they reached a tea hotel where they were told their family was waiting for them.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2014.