KARACHI, Oct 9: As many as 55 cases of kidnapping for ransom have been reported this year, registering a sharp rise in the incidence of the crime compared to 28 cases reported last year.
According to a law-enforcement official, the victims are being targeted in a random fashion and in some cases are being taken to the NWFP.
Official statistics show that 55 cases were reported from January 1 to October 1 this year. Out of them, 19 cases have been solved by the law-enforcement agencies while five are being pursued currently. Though, 31 cases stand unsolved.
‘Short-term kidnappings’ have resurfaced in the city, law-enforcement officials say.
Usually in such cases, one or two armed men choose their target at random and take him or her at gunpoint around city roads making the victim arrange ransom money by calling his immediate family or friends.
They also take the victim to an ATM demanding cash withdrawal at gunpoint.
The method of short-term kidnapping is very popular among certain criminal gangs as it takes less time and ensures instant results, though it is risky, a police officer remarked.
Investigations suggest that even some amateurs and criminal elements of some political parties try short-term kidnappings to make a quick buck, the officer said.
It is not necessary that a case of short-term kidnapping is reported to the police, as there is a possibility that after going through the traumatic experience the victim might be scared to such an extent that he refrain from reporting the incident to police.
It may be Nagan Chowrangi or the Defence Housing Authority, or anywhere else in the city, that the short-term kidnapping may take place, but according to a police officer such cases tend to occur after sunset.
CPLC Chief Sharfuddin Memon says short-term kidnapping cases surge in Ramazan when generally the crime graph moves upward.
“The ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor is one of the driving factors behind the upsurge of crime in the holy month,” Mr Memon says.
Official statistics suggest that 1990 witnessed the highest number of 79 kidnappings in a single year. The subsequent years showed a downward trend with 45 kidnappings in 1991 and much lower in the following years.
However, the figures climbed in 2004 and 2005, when 39 cases were reported in the two respective years, the data collected by the CPLC shows.
Before 2003, there was a 75 per cent success ratio in the kidnapping for ransom cases handled by the CPLC. This meant that the victim’s release was secured without payment of ransom money and kidnappers were caught.
The success rate has now (2007) fallen to around 69 or 70 per cent. The fall in the success ratio is mainly attributable to the rampant use of undocumented SIM cards.
A Pakhtun gang busted recently had seven kidnapping cases to its credit during this year, DIG (Investigation) Manzoor Mughal pointed out.
The gang was targeting children from Pakhtun pockets in different parts of the city and used to transport them to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the DIG said. A gang said to be active in the interior of Sindh is that of Rano Channo.
In addition to operating in the interior of Sindh, the gang often targets its victims in Karachi, occasionally kidnapping businessmen and taking them to their hideouts in the interior.
Some gang members were apprehended about five months back by a law-enforcement agency, but the arrests have not deterred them, observed a senior police official.
Last but not the least, Mashooq Brohi is still alive and is said to have resumed his activities with a vengeance.
During the period from January 1990 to April 2007, a total of 441 kidnapping-for-ransom cases were reported, of which 295 were solved and 146 remained unsolved in which the victims were released against a payment or otherwise but the gangs could not be apprehended. Similarly, 146 gangs were apprehended the data, shows.
