SUKKUR: A torture cell run by a sacked police officer to keep hostages until payment of ransom was busted by a raiding party near Rohri, Sukkur Range DIG retired Captain Syed Feroze Shah told the media here on Friday.

An amount of Rs1 million extorted from the families of three kidnapped students was seized and four kidnappers — two of them police constables — were arrested in the police action, he said.

Giving details of the operation, DIG Shah said that three CA (Chartered Accountancy) students hailing from Quetta — Khalil Ahmed, Abdul Sadiq and Imran Khan Pathan — were kidnapped near Rohri a few days ago while they were travelling along the National Highway. A complaint to this effect was made to the area police by Agha Nasir Pathan and some other relatives of the victims.

The DIG said that while an investigation into the alleged kidnapping was under way, intelligence reports he collected revealed that the students were held hostage by a gang comprising some policemen and criminals. He said the reports also suggested that the gang was led by a sacked sub-inspector, Ayaz Khero, who was running a torture cell within the Rohri area to keep hostages.

He said the three students were freed only after their family members paid the ransom as demanded by the kidnappers.

“A separate raiding party was formed which planned a secret operation to apprehend the gangsters,” said the DIG. He said that the party raided a specified place and apprehended four suspects — Jawed Khero and Naeem Khero (both police constables), Abdul Majeed and Mehrab Abbasi — but Ayaz Khero managed to escape. The amount of Rs1 million extorted from the victims’ families was seized from the arrested suspects at the cell, he added.

In reply to a question, the DIG said that after receiving the ransom, the gangsters had escorted the three hostages to a place along Sindh’s border with Punjab and dropped them with a strong warning against disclosure of their ordeal or identity of their kidnappers to anyone.

He said raids were being conducted to track down the prime suspect, Ayaz Khero, who had previously been posted as an SI in Matiari and was sacked for his involvement in criminal activities.

The DIG said that a case against all five suspects was registered and further investigation was being carried out.

Quoting intelligence reports about the suspects, the senior police officer said the gang had been operating in the Rohri area for long and had kidnapped a number of men, women and youths for ransom.

A thorough investigation into the case had now been assigned to a committee headed by City DSP Sohail Khan, he said.

Sources in the Sukkur police said that the four arrested suspects were produced before a judicial magistrate, who remanded them into jail custody for 14 days.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2017