PESHAWAR: Local traders have rejected the police’s claim about a sharp decline in extortion cases in the city, insisting extortionists continue to threaten many of them for money.

Lately, the Peshawar police claimed over 50 percent drop in extortion cases during the first six months of the year.

According to them, 107 extortion cases were reported in Peshawar during the first six months of last year but the number dropped to 43 in the corresponding period of the current year.

However, traders don’t subscribe to the claim and say the situation is far from being satisfactory.

They claimed extortionists were behind the July 3 blast outside a leading businessman’s banquet hall in Gulbahar neighborhood.

“Haji Haleem Jan has been receiving messages for payment of Rs30 million. To press for the demand, those behind it even bombed his banquet hall,” said trader leader Mujeebur Rehman.

Rehman said Jan and other traders were receiving telephonic calls and letters for extortion from Afghanistan.

Peshawar Chamber of Traders and Small Industry president Ehtesham Haleem said extortion calls from local phone numbers had declined considerably.

He said currently, most such calls originated from VPTCL phones and Afghan SIM cards.

Haleem said though the roaming of Afghan SIMs has been stopped in Pakistan, overspill signals were accessible in Bannu, Torkham and other parts of tribal belt.

He said bio-metric verification was not necessary for VPTCL phones and that was why most extortionist’ have started using them.

The Peshawar Chamber of Traders and Small Industry president said in most cases, around 80-90 percent of traders were forced to pay extortion, as the police too couldn’t stop such calls originating from Afghanistan.

He said extortionists asked people to come to Torkham to settle the matter.

Say most extortionists threatening them from Afghanistan by phone

Haleem said analysis of call data of phone numbers from where such calls were received showed that extortionist did not spared anyone in their ruthless campaign.

“Calls records showed that every smalltime or big number were dialed from such numbers,” he said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Peshawar Dr Mian Saeed told Dawn that both criminal and militant gangs were reaping benefits from ‘extortion business’.

He said most militant gangs involved in extortions were operating from border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“They (militants groups) have their local networks, which attack people’s houses with bombs,” he said, adding that the extortion calls were made from Afghan cellular phone networks.

The official said most of the criminal gangs involved in extortions had been busted.

“We have traced out and arrested at least five criminal gangs involved in extortion in provincial capital during past six months,” Dr Saeed said, adding that these people were involved in dozens cases of extortion.

“I can say with certainty that criminal gangs engaged in extortion have been dealt with strictly and only militant outfits operating from Pak-Afghan border were engaged in it,” he said.

Explaining the sudden rise in extortion incidence, Mian Saeed said militants were primarily using kidnapping for ransom to raise money but when military operations on the outskirts of Peshawar and adjoining Khyber Agency pressed them hard, they opted for extortion.

He said the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Mohmand chapter was behind most extortion cases in Peshawar.

“They are behind around 90 percent extortion cases in Peshawar,” Dr Saeed said, adding that in many cases, internally displaced persons were acting as informants to militants besides providing information about well-off people from Mohmand settled in Peshawar.

He said such elements were still using Afghan SIM cards.

He said the police had lacked access to call detail record of Afghan SIM cards used in extortion cases, while they were blocking SIMs, whose use was reported in individual cases.

A counter-terrorism department official agreed with Saeed’s assertions, saying the number of extortions incidents has dropped considerably.

The official said recently, they busted a big extortion gang from Mardan.

He said most extortion calls originated from Afghanistan.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Faud Ishaq told Dawn that extortion incidence in Peshawar had dropped since the start of the military operation, Zarb-i-Azb, in North Waziristan in June last year.

He, however, said the menace had yet to be overcome.

Published in Dawn ,July 16th, 2015

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