Bail denied: Suspected extortionists arrested from court

Police believe accused hail from FATA and are funding militancy.

ISLAMABAD:

The capital police on Wednesday arrested two of the suspected Sabzi Mandi extortionists after their plea for pre-arrest bail was rejected by an Anti Terrorism Court (ATC).

The Sabzi Mandi police had registered a case against the accused, Safdar Siddiq and Tariq Siddiq, and their agents Murad Ali, Misal alias Masha, Qari and Nasir Khan on a complaint lodged by Arshad Rasheed.

According to the police, Rasheed has been operating a truck loading terminal in Sector I-11/4 for the last 15 years. They said the extortion gang run by the Siddiq family had been extorting sums from him for the last couple of years. The police said the extortionists charged Rs1,000 to Rs3,000 for each loaded truck, depending on their capacity.



The police said the accused had collected between Rs750,000 and Rs1 million in extortion from hundreds of trucks coming to Sabzi Mandi each day. According to police officials, the suspected extortionists hail from the tribal areas and are allegedly collecting the money to fund militant groups.

IGP, DC summoned by IHC

In a related development, Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui summoned Inspector General of the Islamabad Police (IGP) Sikandar Hayat and Islamabad Deputy Commissioner (DC) Amir Ali Ahmed on October 28 with regard to an extortion case.

During the last hearing, the court had expressed dissatisfaction over a report jointly submitted by the police, Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and directed the police to submit a comprehensive report. During the hearing, the court was informed that the IGP was busy with other official duties and requested additional time. The court then directed him, along with Ahmed, to appear on October 28.

According to the report submitted at IHC, after being directed by the court to take action, a team of police, ICT and CDA officials became vigilant and discovered that no party was collecting extortion sums from traders.

However, the market unions were collecting fees for welfare and security purposes in the absence of an official market committee which they then proposed to be formed under the ICT Agricultural Produce and Markets Ordinance (APMO).

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2013.