Rising crime: Daddy’s never coming back

In tough economic times, kidnapping for ransom is a booming business.

PESHAWAR: Aqsa,13, was waiting for her father for weeks. Her tortuous wait ended in unenviable fashion when her father arrived home, but in a coffin. Misri Khan’s bullet-riddled body was recovered on October 7, 2010, after 17 days of his kidnapping.

Misri Khan, a 48-year-old bank manager was kidnapped on September 21, 2010 on his way back to Mardan from his village Qasami. The kidnappers struck a deal with his family for Rs2 million and agreed to release him on October 7. However things went south when police intercepted the conversation between the two parties on 6th October 2010 and conducted a raid in the Skhakot area of Malakand agency.

Before the deal could materialise, police raided the kidnappers’ hideout, but they had already escaped. Enraged by the event, they killed the hostage. The kidnappers accused the family of undermining the deal by reporting it to the police. Instead of releasing him, the kidnappers told his relatives where to collect the dead body.

Sadly, Misri Khan’s case is hardly unique. Kidnapping for ransom has become a flourishing business in Pakistan and particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Some critics say the rise in kidnapping for ransom is a direct result of sky-rocketing prices, poverty and unemployment, while others put the blame on the laxity of law and order.

“People have lost confidence in judicial institutions. The corrupt and ineligible government has failed to deliver”, said legal expert and the Peace Jirga Chairman Syed Kamal Shah. He further said that, “Most of the levies deployed there are involved with these gangs”

The Deputy Superintendent of Police in Mardan Abdul Samad Khan is however hopeful that with additional police patrolling the police department will soon be able to root out the kidnapper’s dens in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas.

The kidnappers are mostly common criminals who target government officials, businessmen, foreign aid workers and other affluent people. The ransom figures vary from a few hundred thousand to millions of rupees.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2011.