BAHAWALNAGAR: The district police claim to have busted a gang involved in honey trapping men through its women members, making their videos and extorting money from them through blackmail.

DPO’s spokesperson Shehzad Ishfaq told Dawn that four people, including two women, had been booked by the Dahranwala Police Station and two of them had been arrested. Scores of abusive videos were recovered from their mobile phones.

He said police investigation had revealed that the gang members, belonging to Chak 172, Murad, had blackmailed several people after using their women members and recording their videos.

The gang used to target naive people, especially those belonging to such a class as could not raise their voice to protect their honour.

The gang used to honey trap men with women for blackmail

On June 26, an electrician, Muhammad Dewan, a resident of Chak 32/3-R, was called by a female gang member of Chak 172, Murad, to an outhouse on the pretext of fixing some electrical fault. When the young man reached the outhouse, he was taken hostage by the male gang members who tortured him, stripped him naked and shot a video with female gang members.

The gang later threatened Dewan with uploading the video on social media in case he did not pay them Rs100,000.

On June 29, a farmer, identified as Muhammad Hanif of Chak 172 Murad, was honey trapped through a woman gang member and his video was made with her. He was blackmailed to pay Rs80,000 to the gang members.

After receiving the amount, the gangsters asked Hanif to continue paying them in the future if he wanted to protect his honour.

The gang also deprived a citizen, Sajid Ali, of the Khatan area of his motorcycle by honey trapping and blackmailing him.

The DPO’s spokesperson claimed that during the interrogation, the arrested gangsters confessed to blackmailing dozens of citizens for a long time. However, he added, the majority of the victims was not ready to record their statements against the gang members because of fear of scandals.

He said the arrested gang members were being questioned to trace its other members.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2022