FAISALABAD: The district police have asked the businessmen attached with the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) and the industrialists to seek police assistance if they receive any call for extortion.

Sources told Dawn that a number of businessmen were making transactions without involving the banks to avoid being taxed by the government. They said such practices by the businessmen could invite the attention of the criminals.

They said some of the gangs had been operating in the district in the past and looted heavy amounts from the people who had been moving with heavy amounts without seeking the police assistance.

Through letters sent to the FCCI president and the chairman All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA), City Police Officer Sohail Chaudhary said in the past some untoward incidents had been reported while transferring of the heavy amounts through banks and other institutions.

Police to help traders who would use banking channel

In March 2018, three security guards of a sugar mills were gunned down and two others injured by robbers who looted a cash van on Jhumra Road, in the remit of Jaranwala city police.

According to Rescue 1122 sources and locals, four guards -- Yaseen (50), Ayub (48), Sardar and Younas -- were returning to Hussain Sugar Mills after collecting cash from a bank in a van driven by Rana Shaukat (45).

They said four robbers on two motorcycles intercepted the van near Sugar Mills Mor and tried to take away the cash.

Police officials claimed that the van had been looted by Hafiz Salman Randhawa group. They said majority of the gang members including Randhawa had been killed during ‘encounters’ with the police.

The CPO mentioned in the letter that in the past some robbery cases during transaction of heavy amount through banks and financial institutions had taken place.Suggesting measures, the CPO said if any threat call is received by the members of the business community, the police authorities must be taken into confidence without any loss of time so that preemptive action could be taken accordingly.

He said assistance of police must be sought for making any heavy transaction with banks.

A police official requesting anonymity said [through the letter] the businessmen had been reminded to refrain from using the illegal practices of transferring the money that could lead to any eventuality.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2020