DPO charged with kidnapping for ransom

KARACHI: Nayyar Azam’s family filed an FIR against DPO Pir Muahmmad Shah of the Hangoorja police station in Khairpur after Azam, a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, was abducted on May 31 on his way back from the city court after attending a hearing.

Azam’s family revealed that they had received a phone call after Azam had been kidnapped, in which the abductors had demanded a sum of Rs50,000 as ransom.

The family alleged that the call had been made by a police official in Khairpur, where Azam had been taken after his abduction.

Despite delivering the money to the abductors, Azam had not been released.

The abductors, who were dressed in police uniforms, had furthermore charged Azam with the theft of 21 sacks of wheat from Khairpur, a district that had never been visited by Azam, his family claimed, who added that they had been asked to pay an additional sum of Rs500,000 for Azam’s freedom, after which they asked for some time to meet the police’s demands.

Azam’s family had then filed an application for his retrieval with Khairpur’s session judge, after which a raid had been conducted at the Hangoorja police station.

The police, however, had managed to move Azam to another location within the period, the family claimed, adding that Shah was behind Azam’s abduction.

The family then filed a petition against Shah, which was accepted and a two-member bench of the Sindh High Court under Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani and Justice Tufail Ibrahim demanded that Shah be summoned to the court on June 15.

Azam’s family appealed to the Sindh chief minister and home minister to ensure Azam’s safety, as they believed that his life was in danger.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2010.