PESHAWAR: The counter-terrorism department (CTD) on Monday claimed that it had busted a militant network involved in extorting money from businessmen and politicians and carrying out hand grenade attacks on the houses and places of business of those declining extortion demands.

Official sources saidan “intelligence-based operation” led to the arrest of two Pakistanis, including a woman, and an Afghan national on the outskirts of the provincial capital.

They said the operation was carried out after the CTD received intelligence about the presence of extortionists in the Pishtakhara area.

The sources said the extortionists had demanded of former provincial minister Haji Javed to pay Rs20 million and attacked his house in Dec last year.

They said the extortionists asked former nazim Ahmad Khan for Rs10 million payment and attacked his house with hand grenades in Khazana area, while three attacks were carried out on the showroom of businessman Mir Mohammad to extort Rs2 million.

Officials insist detainees also involved in attacks on houses, business places

Meanwhile, district police officer of Hangu Asif Bahadur disclosed the arrest of an extortionist associated with theHafiz Daulat Group of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistanand said a hand grenade, a Kalashnikov and Afghan Sim cards were recovered from the detainee’s possession during the raid.

In a statement, the DPO said extortionist Rizwan would take the people’s pictures before sharing them with the banned militant outfit’s commanders in Afghanistan.

The DPO said the extortionist also issued death threats to people

Senior police officials said the Afghan Sim card carried the number of TTP leader Farooq aka Qasab.

They said the local facilitation network of the Hafiz Daulat Group run by Qasab and Mumtaz aka Ummati had been active in the Doaba area for the last many years.

The officials said the network hired local residents to provide information about the people to be targeted for extortion and that it facilitated targeted killing of police officials in the last few years.

They said Rizwan belonged to the Tora Warai area and weapons were recovered from his possession.

The officials said Rizwan informed investigators about the Ummati-Qasab network as well as those, who were targeted for extortion payments but didn’t report culprits to the police due to fear of attacks.

Officials said the crackdown on extortionists was being carried out to stop the financial assistance of militants.

On March 8, Inspector General of Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Akhtar Hayat said financial assistance was a key aspect of militancy but it wasn’t addressed well.

He told reporters that the focus of authorities remained on the manpower and weapons of militant groups with the sources of their funding “not receiving the required attention.”

The IGP said if security and law-enforcement forces killed militants, their groups would recruit more, while weapons and ammunition was readily available across the country’s western border.

“What requires more focus is to check from where the money is coming in for militants,” Mr Hayat said.

The police chief said the CTD recently established the Counter-Terrorist Financing Unit to “reduce and investigate” the growing extortion cases to finance terrorist activities. He said some extortion demands were reported to the police but mostly, people “silently” paid the amount to extortionists.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2023