RAWALPINDI, Sept 16: The federal government has directed provincial governments as well as the Capital police chief to submit reports on kidnapping for ransom cases reported since December 2002, Dawn learnt on Tuesday.

Administrations of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Northern Areas have also been asked to submit separate reports about actions initiated against gangs involved in such incidents, cases so far traced by the law enforcement agencies and the number of pending cases.

Sources said that since December 2002, 94 incidents of kidnappings for ransom had occurred in the country.

An increase in the number of the kidnapping for ransom cases was noticed in the Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan area, where a gang, allegedly headed by Tariq Bosan, was active since long despite the police efforts to arrest him and recover the kidnapped persons.

An official maintained that Tariq Bosan was a proclaimed offender and figured prominently on the police’s most wanted list. The police had conducted a number of raids but efforts to unearth the gang remained unproductive because of what the official said was poor planning.

The federal government also directed provincial governments, the IGP Islamabad as well as administrations of the AJK and the Northern Areas to take strict action against the gangs involved in such cases and recover persons still missing.

Meanwhile, figures collected from the police department showed that 151 cases of kidnappings had so far occurred in Rawalpindi district this year, in contrast to 139 cases occurring during the same period last year.