Extortion rate hits one million rupees in Malir

Karachi's Shah Latif Police investigate threats to transporter

A transport businessman who was starting construction on a plot on the outskirts of Karachi has been threatened by extortionists who have demanded one million rupees, it emerged on Friday. 

Complainant Sarfaraz Ali told the Shah Latif Police that when construction began on his plot four men turned up on two motorcycles, brandishing pistols. They told him that he had to pay them one million rupees if he wanted to continue building. They handed his watchman an extortion note with a bullet before taking off.

Ali added that he felt he would be able to identify the men.

He also told the police that on October 16, while he was asleep at home, his watchman Abdul Samad informed him that about 20 men had arrived at the Malir plot, demolished its boundary walls, and fired shots in the air.

Read: Out of 118 extortion complaints, 44 found to be genuine: police

The watchman identified the men as Dher Muhammad, Yaseen, Ghalib Domki, and Akbar believed to be the same men who had come to deliver the bullet.

Ali has filed an FIR (No. 1541/25) for extortion, threats and mischief, under Sections 427, 384, 385, 337H(ii), and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Shah Latif SHO Zameer Ahmed said that they had handed the case over to the Special Investigation Unit.

Last week, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry advised its members and the city's business community that there was a surge in extortion threats. Multiple traders had been receiving extortion slips accompanied by bullets.

Most recently three members of a gang were arrested for trying to extort from JDC Foundation head Zafar Abbas.