Extortion rears ugly head in Pindi’s Gujar Khan

Police claim to have arrested two alleged extortionists

RAWALPINDI:

Extortion cases have once again rsurfaced in Gujar Khan of Rawalpindi district as an overseas Pakistani and two other businessmen received threatening calls from alleged extortionists demanding money from them.

Meanwhile, Gujar Khan police, which has received two complaints from an expatriate Pakistani and a local businessman, claimed to have arrested two suspects in one of the two extortion-related cases.

In the first incident, Zareef Qamar, a London-based Pakistani, lodged a complaint with the Gujar Khan police stating that an unidentified man called him, demanding extortion of Rs0.1 million in the first instalment.

Qamar, who had come to Pakistan to attend his father’s funeral, told the police that his late father had sold a 7-kanal plot for Rs70 million prior to his death. Following the property deal and his arrival in Pakistan, he had started receiving threatening calls from an unidentified person who was demanding extortion.

Qamar told the police that through the phone call, the extortionist asked him to pay Rs100,000 in the first instalment before arranging the rest of the sum according to the demand.

According to the complainant, the alleged extortionist told him that he would not be allowed to keep the sum of Rs70 million alone. When Qamar refused to pay the extortion money, some unidentified persons showed up outside his home and opened fire hitting his gate.

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In this case, the police claimed to have arrested two alleged extortionists and an investigation is underway.

In the second incident, Sheikh Umar, who hails from Sialkot, lodged a complaint with the Gujar Khan police stating that while he was coming to Rawalpindi with one, Sheikh Hasan and Saleem, in a car when a white car chased them near Gujjar Khan.

The complainant told the police that the chasing car hit their vehicle from sideward to make their vehicle stop before he and his co-travellers escaped to save their lives. The complainant told the police that three men were in the car who chased and rammed their vehicle into their car.

Umar told the police that he was receiving threatening calls from an unidentified person who warned has him of dire consequences if he did not pay Rs10 million in extortion.

When contacted, the Gujjar Khan Police Station House Officer said that a case had been registered and an investigation is underway.

In another incident, Munir Ahmed Butt, a woodworks businessman, had lodged a complaint with the Mandra police stating that he had set up a factory behind the police station where his younger brother sells electrical devices.

The complainant told the police that he received a call with an Afghanistan dialling code and the suspected caller introduced himself as a member of the Taliban.

According to Butt, when he refused to pay the extortion sum, he received another call from a non-local number and the caller demanded him to pay Rs1 million, threatening him of dire consequences if he failed to do so this time around

Butt told the police that the threatening call has forced him to shut his business.

Mandra Police Station House Officer Inspector Muhammad Khan said that an investigation has been launched into the matter, however, no arrest had been made.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2021.