PESHAWAR: Changing their modus operandi, the extortionists now ask the local traders to pay them the extortion money in Afghanistan, Dubai or Qatar to evade arrest, say sources.

According to leaders of traders, extortionists have intensified their activities and complaints about demand of extortion are increasing with each passing day but government is least bothered to take necessary steps for resolve the issue.

The cases registered by police show that majority of complaints are lodged against the terrorists, who apparently live in Afghanistan as the telephone SIMs are not registered in any part of Pakistan.

Traders said that besides businessmen, some other well off people had also started receiving threatening calls from extortionists.

Ask traders to pay them extortion money in Afghanistan, Dubai or Qatar

They said that they were asked to pay the money either in Afghanistan, Qatar or Dubai otherwise their fate would not be different from that of senor businessman Haji Haleem Jan, who was assassinated in Peshawar on Feb 9, 2016.

Sources said that extortionists were asking his (Haleem’s) sons to pay them Rs30 million or face their wrath.

“Yes the reports about threats given to us regularly for payment of extortion are true. We have contacted police for seeking their help but to no avail,” said Mohammad Ihtesham Haleem, the son of Haji Haleem Jan.

He said that at least 3,000 people received the threatening calls but most of them avoided to contact police for fear of reprisal. “Now the traders are asked to come to Afghanistan for payment of extortion,” he added.

Mr Ihtesham said that traders were asked to visit Ghanikhel and Parchikhel areas in Afghanistan for payment of extortion. “We have no solution to the problem because it is duty of police to protect us,” he said and added that traders had given suggestions to government to deploy Rangers or Frontier Constabulary to assist police.

Mr Ihtesham claimed that many people preferred to pay extortion instead of taking risk. He said that police should reactivate its intelligence network to locate the facilitators of extortionists and control attacks on traders. He also demanded beefing up security at Pakistan Afghanistan border to check movement of unregistered Afghans.

The government should deport all illegal foreigners otherwise crimes and acts of terrorism would continue to happen. He said that after killing his father, extortionists were threatening him and his other family which meant that Peshawar was no more safe for them.

Besides the traders, Khalid Hassan Shah, a senior banker, has also registered a case with Gulbahar police against unidentified extortionists. An official said that about 12 such cases were registered only at Gulbahar police station.

The banker was so frightened that he took two-month leave from his office.

Similarly, in the current year 18 such cases have been registered at Khan Raziq police station while 17 cases have been registered at East Cantonment police station against extortionists.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Zulfiqar Ali Khan said that threatening calls had been increased but police had no technology to trace them.

Appreciating police force for offering sacrifices in the war against terrorism, he said they (police personnel) needed capacity building trainings and latest technology to counter the attacks and threats.

The KPCCI chief said that of 7,000 police personnel hardly 2,000 were taking part in the operations in routine. He said that Islamabad was a safer place but it had 20,000 police personnel. The federal government was least bothered to assist Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in that regard, he added.

“We have three options -- to pay the money, leave Peshawar or offer sacrifice of life,” said the KPCCI chief. He said that shortage of police could easily be judged from the fact that building for Industrial Estate police station at Hayatabad was ready but policemen were not available to be deployed there.

He also mentioned the new strategy of extortionists to ask traders to pay them in Dubai, Qatar and other countries. The government should take prompt steps for search of facilitators of extortionists and make extraordinary security arrangements for people to remove the prevailing unrest among them.

Efforts were made to contact Peshawar SSP (operations) for comments on this issue but he could not be contacted.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2016