The growing incidents of extortion and targeted attacks have made the life miserable for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially the doctors and traders.

Frequent bomb blasts and suicide attacks during the past five years resulted in damage to valuable properties besides claiming the lives of thousands of people, mainly from the low income group, but successive governments did not compensate the affected families properly.

Of late the deadly bomb blasts have almost stopped, but the targeted attacks aimed at extorting money from the well-off people are happening frequently with no proper strategy on the part of the government to overcome the menace.

The representatives of the business community and doctors have warned the government to take a decisive action against the gangs involved in the terrorist acts otherwise they will have to shift their businesses to safer places or besiege the house of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister in protest.

The protection of life and property has become one of the major issues being faced by the people and that is why the traders and doctors held several meetings with the authorities, including the chief minister and governor, and apprised them of the problems and sought their support in this connection.

According to police sources, every third or fourth person of the business community and doctors has been facing direct or indirect threats and many of them have received ‘purchee’ (chits) or phone calls from unknown persons to pay them ‘chanda’ (contribution for Taliban). Many of the people are paying extortion to the gangsters to save themselves without informing the law enforcement agencies.

The situation has taken a serious turn because in case of refusal to pay the extortion the gangsters’ immediate reaction used to be a bomb blast or hand grenade attack on the residence of the refusing person. During the current year dozens of such blasts have taken place in the province, which also claimed lives of innocent people.

Owing to the targeted attacks the traffic police personnel have also been directed to wear bulletproof jackets and keep weapons to take immediate action in case of any attempt on their lives, mainly at busy intersections.

Police claim that during the past some months about 125 people involved in extortion cases have been arrested. Majority of the people are stated to be Afghan nationals who frequently change their residences and avoid giving information to the local police while hiring houses on rent.

Despite arrests of such a large number of outlaws there is still no break in the incidents and at least two cases are reported daily from parts of the provincial metropolis alone. The provincial government has approved a law “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Restriction of Rented Buildings Security Ordinance 2014” to check the tenants in rented buildings so as to restrict movement of the anti-state and anti-social elements, but unfortunately the process could not be kept intact due to different reasons.

Though, the law is in the interest of citizens, the property dealers, hoteliers and shopkeepers are opposing it, saying that its implementation would affect business activities.

“One cannot imagine how fast the incidents of extortion are increasing. Our community seems to be on the hit list of the extortionists, but the government is least bothered to take action for our protection,” said Dr Sanaullah Khan of Malgari Doctoran while talking to Dawn.

People’s Doctors Forum president Hussain Afridi said that doctors had been facing serious problems due to the threats and they were unable to do their duties with a peace of mind. “How we will attend the clinics and hospitals when majority of doctors are facing kidnapping for ransom threats,” he lamented.

Zahid Shinwari, president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the traders would not be able continue business when there were serious threats to their lives. He urged the government to take drastic steps for hitting hard the gangs of criminals and get the citizens rid of the menace of extortion so that the local economy could improve.

He said that in the prevailing disturbed situation the foreign investors would never like to come to the province because the local people are unable to sustain the threats.

Keeping in view the grave situation created due to the kidnapping for ransom and extortion cases, the police department has established a special cell at the central police office, Peshawar, for controlling such serious crimes. An SP level officer has been heading the cell to have liaison with all police stations and take swift action in case of such happenings.

According to officials of the home and tribal affairs department, the people involved in such crimes have established dens in different areas of Mardan, Charsadda, Peshawar and surrounding tribal areas, and reports regarding their whereabouts are being confirmed through aerial surveillance also.

They are also stated to have dens in the 25 disputed villages located between Peshawar and Mohmand tribal region, and they can easily escape after committing crime in the settled localities of Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera and Charsadda districts. The terrorists who have become active in Peshawar are based in Frontier Region, Bar Qambarkhel and other adjacent localities of the tribal agencies.

The provincial government has also devised a plan to overcome the alarming situation. The plan includes setting up of a monitoring cell to be supervised by the home and tribal affairs department to keep vigilance on the movement of suspected persons in urban areas.

A high-ranking police official said that most of the kidnapping cases had been occurring in Hayatabad, Peshawar, and the major reasons for this were the broken boundary wall, nearness to the tribal regions and lack of security staff. He said that the government had ordered reconstruction of the boundary wall around Hayatabad and upgrading the police post of industrial estate to a police station, while about 39 closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras would be installed at sensitive spots to check movement of terrorists.

“We have time and again advised the businessmen to make security arrangements at their own at least by installing CCTV cameras at workplaces and hiring services of private security guards, but very few of them agreed while others politicised the issue,” the official said.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2014