PESHAWAR, Sept 17: Several people kidnapped in the last two months from the Town-II area of the city were released on payment of huge amounts of money in ransom to secure their release, Nazim Haji Mohammad Sharif told Dawn on Sunday.

However, Dr Mohammad Ayaz, an orthopaedic surgeon of the Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad, who had been kidnapped on Aug 16, was still untraced despite registration of a case with the police, Mr Sharif said.

The nazim alleged that police had failed to provide protection to the people of his area.

He said that Zafar Khan, who was kidnapped on Aug 15 from his farm in the Tarnab Farm area on Grand Trunk Road, had returned home after paying Rs3 million ransom.

An oil trader abducted in the second week of August was released after paying Rs3.5 million ransom, the nazim added.

Khalil Bangash, a resident of Duran Pur, recently paid huge amount to the kidnappers to secure the release of his minor son abducted last months, he said.

There were few others kidnap victims who had been released after ransom payment, the nazim said.

“Law and order has deteriorated in my area,” Mr Sharif said and added that he would raise the issue with the police authorities and urge them to introduce a security system in his area.

Meanwhile, police have failed to recover a trader, a seven-year-old schoolboy and a banker, who were kidnapped last week, police officials confirmed.

Afghan national Ahmad Masud, presently living in Hayatabad township, told police that on Wednesday morning he was waiting for a van at Hayatabad phase-III intersection to drop his seven-year-old nephew Ali to a school. Three people came on a white car, threw red chillies in his eyes, picked up Ali and drove to some unknown location, he said.

The trader, Haji Haroon, was kidnapped at 5am on Tuesday near his house in Gulberg area. Police officials confirmed that the family of Mr Haroon on Wednesday received a call from the kidnappers, informing them that the kidnap victim was safe in the tribal area.

The Gulberg police officials said that they had so far found no clue to the abductors.

Sayed Jalal, who was kidnapped eight days ago from Warsak Road, has not been recovered. His family has tried to contact the kidnappers through the political administration of Khyber Agency.

The incidents of kidnapping for ransom have increased in the area in recent months amid police refusal to register FIRs and little cooperation offered by the political authorities of the tribal area where the kidnappers are believed to be based.

The people have also lost confidence in police and prefer to directly contact the kidnappers through their friends or relatives in the tribal region. Police lack equipment, particularly phone call tracking device, to trace the kidnappers’ locations. Moreover, it is believed that the criminals have got cellular phone connections on fake identity cards, making it impossible to identify them through the phone connection record.