KARACHI: Police on Monday claimed to have arrested three alleged extortionists, who targeted doctors and pharmaceutical companies, and are believed to have links with a South Africa-based gang.

“Police have arrested two suspected extortionists, Wasif Rafiq and Faizan alias Matto, and seized computers from them in Khawaja Ajmer Nagri,” said Karachi-West DIG Feroze Shah.

On their lead, their accomplice Hasan Tufail was also detained.

“This is an international gang of extortionists who mostly targeted doctors and pharmaceutical companies,” said the officer at a press conference.

“Several doctors have left the country due to fear,” added the DIG. The held suspects belong to “a political party”, said the officer.

“They had been involved in extortion during the last five years but they tended to use names of outlawed Lyari gangs and the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan while sending extortion chits to doctors, pharmaceutical companies and traders,” claimed the officer.

The money generated through the extortion was being sent to South Africa.

Feroze Shah said the held suspects identified two accomplices, Hafiz Furqan and Johnson, who are based in South Africa.

The money was being sent through the bank account of the wife of another accomplice, Junaid Baghdadi, resident of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2015

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