A business nuisance: ‘TTP’ tries to extort Rs50m from trader

Businessmen claims the call came from an Afghan number.

PESHAWAR: A trader lodged a complaint with the Kotwali police on Tuesday against unidentified extortionists who have told him to pay them Rs50 million or else face “dire consequences”.

Muhammad Akhtar Ali, the owner of a fabric business on Muhammad Ali Johar Road in Kochi Bazaar, received a call from someone claiming to be a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan commander. The call came from an Afghan number, and the caller asked Ali to pay Rs50 million within two days.

“He warned me of dire consequences if the money was not paid to him within two days and told me to come to Torkham, Landikotal with the cash in hand,” he recorded in the FIR. “Two of my brothers have a business in Lahore and have also been receiving similar threats from unidentified extortionists since the past couple of months.”

Police registered an FIR and started investigating the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th,2014.