LAHORE: The officials of various spy agencies on Friday reached Bhakkar city to interrogate an alleged member of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) arrested by Bhakkar police for extorting money from people, especially traders, in different districts.

The agencies are interrogating the suspect to know his status in the proscribed militant outfit, as Bhakkar shared boundaries with some areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the law enforcement agencies are leading anti-terrorism operations these days.

Sources say it took the police two days to trace and arrest the suspect through the locators ‘borrowed’ from Multan police, showing a lack of modern gadgets at the disposal of Punjab police to round up terrorists and hardened criminals.

An official privy to the development told Dawn the suspect had been dodging the agencies and the counter terrorism department (CTD) for many months.

“He used to switch on his mobile phone at a particular time, mostly for 15 minutes only, to contact his targets to extort money”, the official said, adding the SIM used by the suspect for making extortion demand was in the name of a woman from Rajanpur district.

He said the number of the suspect’s victims reached 12 within a few months, causing concern among police and other law enforcement agencies.

In the latest hit, the suspect made a call to a car showroom owner of Bhakkar city and demanded Rs1 million ransom, introducing himself as member of the banned TTP and hurled life threats.The ransom call alarmed the city traders who met Bhakkar District Police Officer (DPO), demanding security, while the district bar association also shared their concern.

Following the bar and traders’ demand, the spy agencies and the Punjab CTD swung into action and intensified their efforts to trace the alleged TTP man.

However, as the Bhakkar police had no locators needed to trace the suspect, they had to borrow the gadget from Multan police, the official said.

He said initially the suspect could not be traced with the locator as he would keep his mobile phone switched off most of the time.

Later, the Bhakkar police deployed over 100 personnel outside the mobile phone shops where he used to collect ransom amount through an online service.

On Thursday, the police finally managed to nab the suspect when he visited a shop to collect ransom amount sent to him by an under cover station house officer (SHO) posing as a businessman, the official said.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2022