Police arrest two hostage-takers

Two more members of a criminal gang, led by the son of Sui Southern Gas Company’s managing director, were arrested with the help of cameras installed in a local bank’s ATM.

The arrested men, Farman Ali and Javed, during initial investigation told interrogators that they had killed a 30-year-old American citizen, Sajid Hassan.

Police said they also confessed to having killed two young friends Abdul Basit Sheikh, 35, and Adeel, 30, whose bodies were recovered from a well located within Memon Goth police precincts on June 13. Three of their associates – Shiraz Farooqui, Tasawwur and Kashif – had already been arrested.

Farman Ali and Javed told investigators that they along with their three accomplices had been involved in different criminal cases.

The group consists of at least seven members and is led by Shiraz Farooqui, who is the son of the MD SSGC.

The group, after kidnapping the two business friends and receiving a part of the Rs5 million demanded in ransom money, had killed them. “We kidnapped them on June 7 and later killed them and dumped their bodies into the well,” the accused told investigators. “Earlier, we had killed an American national Hussain on April 29.”

Talking about the modus operandi of the criminal activities, the accused told investigators that they call the people interested in tenders published by their group in newspapers and later kidnapped them at their office. Despite getting ransom money, they killed the people.

SHO of Azizabad police station Ishtiaq Ghouri told The Express Tribune that Shiraz was leading the group.  “We captured these two guys with the help of cameras installed in a local bank’s ATM when they were withdrawing money from the victims’ ATM cards,” he said.

“Two of their associates Faryal and Afzal are still at large.”

Published in the Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2010.