Police identify a suspect behind kidnapping bid at Dolmen Mall, Clifton

The culprit, Alamgir Jan, was identified through the licence of the gun he left behind.

KARACHI: The police has identified the prime suspect involved in the attempt to kidnap a woman and her two children from the underground parking at Dolmen Mall, Clifton, and has put his name on the Exit Control List.

The key suspect, Alamgir Jan, and his accomplices rolled into the mall’s underground parking on March 2 in a black Toyota Prius with a green ‘applied for registration’ licence plate. The CCTV footage, which was aired on television channels for the first time a week ago, shows how a guard foiled the kidnapping attempt as well as how the suspects left their vehicle behind and stole another car outside the mall in which they sped off. Law enforcers impounded the Prius and also seized a pistol that was inside it.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Investigations SSP Faizullah Karejo said, “Up till now, we have only been able to discover that Jan is the prime suspect who formed the gang.” He added that the man does not seem to be influential. “He’s just trying to be sharp and stealthy like James Bond.” There are no records of the suspect being involved in criminal activity in the past.

Law enforcers believe that Jan and his accomplices have gone in hiding and SSP Karejo said substantial efforts are being taken to curtail their movements so that they can be apprehended. “Because we’re being vigilant, Jan is going to be forced to hide until he gets tired of doing so. That’s when we’ll nab him,” explained SSP Karejo. “As soon as we arrest Jan, we’ll know the motive behind the incident and where his accomplices are hiding.”



Using the pistol’s licence number, the police obtained his CNIC. They then went to the victims who confirmed that the man on the card was one of the people who had tried to abduct them. The police used the addresses listed on the CNIC to catch the suspect, but all of them turned out to be fake. But there is other information that they have come across. “We have even managed to dig out details about Jan’s family life - he’s been married twice,” said investigation officer Irshan Karim.

The family has refused to speak to the media. The preliminary investigation suggests that the cause behind the incident was not a personal dispute. Earlier, law enforcers believed that it could have been a personal dispute as the culprits had told the mall’s guard to stay back and not interfere in a “family matter”. “After hours of questioning the family, we reached the conclusion that the incident had not occurred because of a family dispute,” said district South SSP Nasir Aftab. “Perhaps it was a case of mistaken identity and the suspects took the victim for somebody else.”

SSP Karejo said that based on the CCTV footage, it seems as if the suspects were not professional kidnappers. “Perhaps the gang was involved in petty crimes in the past and they decided to step up their activities and do something bigger,” he said. “That’s why they chose to park the car at one of the darkest spots of the parking area and chose easy targets. They may have pulled the trigger and shot the security guard by mistake.”

Police officers believe they had figured out a way to capture the prime suspect but the media ruined their plan by airing the CCTV footage. “We had found a spot that Jan would go to every day without fail,” said SSP Nasir Aftab. “But the footage may have stopped him from going there.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2013.