LAHORE, Dec 10: Awami National Party central secretary general Ehsan Wyne has received a letter from 'extremists’, containing threats to him and his family if he does not pay them Rs2.5 million.
The threat letter, the first received by a Lahore-based politician, indicates an increase in extortion activities in the provincial metropolis.
Mr Wyne has already informed the capital city police officer about the letter he was delivered on Sunday. It was delivered to the address of a party colleague who passed it on to the ANP leader. Police have not provided him security so far.
“The incident is not in my knowledge. I’ll look into it,” Sadar SP (Operations) Malik Awais said, when contacted by Dawn. However, Mr Wyne said a DSP phoned him on Tuesday evening, desiring to know the episode ‘being discussed by various quarters in the city.’
There have been several incidents of high profile abductions for ransom in the city in the recent past. Prominent amongst those kidnapped included former Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s son Shahbaz Taseer, ex-JCSC Gen (retd) Tariq Majeed’s son-in-law Amer Aftab Malik and US national Dr Warren Wein Stein. Amer returned home after one and a half years in March last year. It is unclear if the family paid the ransom or he was released as a result of some deal with his abductors.
“If you need (protection to) your and your family’s lives then reach Mir Ali Bazaar in Miranshah, North Waziristan by 11am on 10-12-13, Tuesday, with cash or send us your ex-president (Punjab) Dr Zulfiqar with the money,” reads a handwritten note in Urdu.
“You must have seen the end of Balochistan’s Arbab Zahir Kasi and Bashir Bilour. You have done enough ANP politics. Now send us this money immediately as (ANP chief) Asfandyar will make up for your loss. How long he too will live. You simply take care of your children and yourself. Either (pay) the money or (face) a bad end. The decision is yours,” it concludes with the threat.
The ANP has been a target of militants as its chief survived a suicide hit while its ex-senior KPK minister Bashir Bilour and ex-information minister Mian Iftikhar’s son fell prey to the Taliban attacks.
Mr Wyne, unlike other ANP leaders, is opposed to the US intervention in Afghanistan and the drone attacks in the country’s tribal areas, the hub of militants. He had received the first call from the sender(s) of the threat letter on his cell phone on Saturday evening.
“The caller introduced himself as someone from Rawalpindi and wanted my address so that he could deliver some gifts he had brought for me,” Mr Wyne told Dawn.
The caller disconnected the line when asked to identify himself as ‘the conversation suggested that he was not a political worker.’ The landline the suspected man was using was of an R.A. Bazaar PCO.
Mr Wyne said the caller then contacted Dr Zulfiqar, got his address and dropped an envelop containing the letter at his residence.
A self-made person, who lived most of his life in a two-room rented flat, Wyne bemoans that how he could arrange the amount to protect his and his family’s lives.
