ISLAMABAD: Eight armed men raided a call centre owned by a Chinese national in the disguise of law enforcement enforcers and looted 130 laptops besides abducting a worker and extorting Rs400,000 for his release, police said on Friday.

Besides, another Chinese national and his employee narrowly escaped when robbers opened fire on them.

In the first incident, a gang of eight persons raided the call centre at G-10/4 located about two kilometres from the Ramna police station and looted 130 laptops and furniture. Besides, they abducted one of the employees and released him after extorting Rs400,00 from him.

Over the incident, a case has been registered at the Ramna police station. According to the FIR, six of the armed men were in black uniform and they introduced themselves as officials of the Federal Investigation Agency.

They handcuffed a staff member — Zamad Khan — and told him that there was a complaint against the office, the FIR said, adding later they loaded the laptops and chairs into their vehicles besides bundling Zamad Khan into a car and beating him.

The armed persons continued roaming on different roads, asking people about the address of the Chinese owner of the call centre, the FIR said. They also threatened Khan to arrange Rs15 million for them. The armed persons looted Rs400,000 from him and gave him a phone number with the direction to arrange Rs15 million and call them on the number. Khan was released after over eight hours.

The police registered the case under section 170 (Personating a public servant), 171 (Wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent), 342 (Punishment for wrongful confinement), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 506ii (If threat be to cause death or grievous hurt).

A police officer said that as per the circumstances and contents of the FIR it was a dacoity incident. Besides, the employee was abducted for extortion of money. But instead of registering the case under section 395 (Punishment for dacoity), 365-A (Kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc) and 383 (Extortion), the police registered the FIR for cheating, confinement and impersonating.

Another police officer told Dawn that the police arrested 14 persons in connection with the case and recovered some of the looted items from them. He said it was not a dacoity, kidnapping or extortion, but a fraud case as the criminals impersonated themselves as officials of FIA, he added.

In another case, a Chinese national and his assistant narrowly escaped when armed persons opened fire on them at Jowbad Road, about two kilometres from Tarnol police station, the police said.

The police registered a case under section 393 (Attempt to commit robbery) of PPC.

According to the FIR, Mehdi Hassan, working as an assistant at China Factory, was coming to the factory from G-15 along with his boss. Three riders of a motorcycle intercepted their vehicle and opened fire on them when they reached the factory’s gate. The two remained unhurt.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2024