Police bust Ghotki-based gang that kidnapped K-P govt official

The group has been accused of abducting over 50 people.

UBAURO: The Ghotki police busted on Wednesday a criminal group that reportedly used women to lure unsuspecting men into visiting them. They would kidnap the men and then ask their families to pay for their release.

Nawabi Kosh, the group leader, and three of his accomplices were apprehended by the Ghotki police on Wednesday. The group was reportedly behind the abduction of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) additional home secretary Muhammad Ramzan.

During a press conference, Ghotki SSP Irfan Baloch and DSP Niaz Chandio said that the men were kidnapping people since 2006, and used women from Sukkur, as well as, the Punjab to lure people from various areas.

These women would flirt with men through text messages and cellular conversations, and then encourage them to visit them, said the police. “They would then kidnap the people who would come to visit them, and ask their families to pay them money,” said an official.



SSP Baloch said that the group had kidnapped around 50 people, including Ramzan. The K-P official was rescued on December 16 after Ghotki police had raided the Mir Kosh area.

SSP Baloch said that Kosh had also kidnapped a businessman from Faisalabad, and only released him after his family had paid Rs80 million. “In case a family did not pay the ransom amount, the group would kill them. They have killed several people,” added Baloch.

The police also recovered a phone list from the criminals, which indicated the group had contacts in different cities, including Karachi.

Providing details about the history of kidnapping activities in Ghotki, SSP Baloch said that the first case of abduction was reported in the district in 1975. In 2006, it first came to light that women were being used as enablers in such activities in Ghotki.The police have registered cases against the men at Khanbra police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2013.