Mission accomplished: Three ‘kidnappers’ killed as police rescue trader

Malik Zainul Abideen was abducted on August 13 from Clifton.

KARACHI: A well-known petroleum contractor kidnapped two months ago was rescued by police after a bloody encounter in Mauripur which left three alleged militants dead and two policemen injured.

Malik Zainul Abideen was kidnapped on August 13 shortly after he left his home in Clifton to pray at a nearby mosque. The 80-year-old businessman owns several petrol stations across Karachi. His son, Malik Imran, is a former member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa legislature.

Around four armed men in a car had abducted Zainul Abideen. The bereaved family registered the case at the Clifton police station and later the investigation was transferred to the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC).

As it was a high-profile case, the cell started investigations in collaboration with the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) to rescue the businessman. Both police departments convinced the family to begin negotiations with the kidnappers.

The kidnappers initially demanded Rs200 million as ransom, which was later reduced to Rs50 million after negotiations between the family and the kidnappers.

“The family agreed to pay Rs17 million but the kidnappers were stuck at Rs50 million,” the AVCC chief, SSP Niaz Khosa, told The Express Tribune. “We can’t say with surety that the kidnappers were Taliban but they were from some militant group.”

Zainul Abideen was being kept at a 1000-square-yard bungalow in the Javed Bahria Town Housing Society near Hawkesbay beach. “The kidnappers did not torture the abducted trader but he was chained inside a room where he was properly fed,” Khosa explained.

The phone calls from the kidnappers were traced to Waziristan. The family was warned time and again that the hostage would be killed if they created any problem for the kidnappers. Unconfirmed reports suggested that the police also detained some suspects, including women, from the kidnappers’ hideout but the SSP refuted them.

When the AVCC and CPLC personnel raided the bungalow early Tuesday morning, the kidnappers started firing at the police. Two officers, Jamshed and Maroof, were wounded. The three kidnappers were killed at the spot as police retaliated. Three Kalashnikovs and three TT pistols were also seized.

CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy told The Express Tribune that the kidnappers had been calling the family from Peshawar and its surrounding areas.

“They were professional kidnappers and did not call the family from their hideout as they knew the calls could be traced,” he explained. “They only sent two video messages of the trader to the family.”

Officials privy to the matter, however, said that the AVCC and CPLC had failed to trace the location of the kidnappers as they were not calling from their hideout in Karachi. Police were only able to trace the location after the kidnappers made one phone call from their hideout to settle the ransom amount with the family, they alleged.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.