According to a report in this newspaper, there has been an alarming increase in incidents of kidnapping for ransom over the last few years, with more than 450 such cases being registered in each of the last two years. This is obviously a law-and-order issue, which the various police forces across the country must tackle but, even more than that, it is also a national security concern. It has always been feared that militants, particularly in Peshawar and Karachi, have been using kidnappings for ransom as a particularly macabre form of fundraising. Even now, over a year after they were kidnapped, Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, and Warren Weinstein, a US aid worker, are still being held, presumably because a high enough ransom hasn’t been paid to secure their release.
Kidnappings carried out by militants aren’t just about the money. Often, they will let go off their captives only if the government releases incarcerated militants. This is done quietly so that the government doesn’t have to admit that it negotiates with terrorists. Obviously, this is not a strategy the government should be employing. If abductors know that they will never be hunted down but rather given money for their crime, it will only lead to a further increase in kidnappings for ransom.
Dealing with abductions for ransom has to be made a priority by the government because they tend to target the already-vulnerable minority communities. In Balochistan, the Hindu community has been particularly affected by abductions to the extent that many of its members have left the province. This community has been targeted, both because a lot of Hindus are traders and thus have the money to pay ransom and also because the government is less likely to pursue kidnapping cases if the victims are part of a minority group. Such stances are detrimental to the country’s progress and the government needs to evolve a comprehensive strategy to chase down abductors.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2012.
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ET seriously need a button on comments showing dislike or disaproved some of the comments here belong to loony toons.
not hitting the root cause. The secular state in Pakistan has failed and democracy has failed to bring the kind of leadership we need to provide security.
Try Khilafat!
Agree with Gul Bahadur that in cases of kidnappings the agencies in most cases know the kidnappers but for reasons best known to them do not intervene. If kidnapping for ransom is made a crime punishable by death penalty then this crime will drastically reduce.
Question: Who kidnapped AJMAL KHAN,the V.C. of Islamia college University?This Ramadan he has completed THREE YEARS in TALIBAN's captivity.The Agencies know about his whereabouts and also his kidnappers.Why he is not released.The answer is simple but difficult to answer.We are living in a country where every body is a kidnapper of some sorts.
Its no secret these are being carried out by agencies to fund themselves and so called good taliban to fight in Afghanistan.....
Kidnappings are a sick way of exploitation. Killing people that others care about is bad in itself but there's a difference between that and what kidnappings for ransom amount to. Unexpected death is a shock, but kidnapping for life/death ransom forces people who would never think of harming another into a gross situation exploiting their conscience. They start seeing themselves as the cause for the person's death. If they can't meet the demands, they can end up seeing themselves as the person at fault. They force the person do believe the person's life and death is in their hands and the outcome, if bad, is their fault. I'm also sure if they do manage to meet the demands, having to frantically find the means and they still die they're going to be looking at lifelong mental problems. They somehow manage to absolve themselves even in the eyes of the victims and shift blame using exploitation of emotions when nobody should be blamed but the kidnapper. It takes a depraved person to do that. Also on a larger scale it amounts to torturing the abducted person without lifting a finger. Like kidnapping one person to blackmail a nation. It should be common sense, in a war-like situation, that the plan is going to fail from the start. While the kidnappers seem to be blind to that, the one abducted is likely to be well aware of it. Every day for that person would have to be a sick form of mental torture.