LAHORE: City police claimed to have busted a gang comprising young women and some policemen, allegedly involved in kidnap, torture and extortion through blackmail, in an operation in Kot Lakhpat area.

The police reportedly arrested six suspects — three policemen and as many women — after a young man running an online business fell prey to the gang.

According to an official, the gang was operated by three policemen, who were using young girls to trap people.

Sharing details, he said, a young man, Kamran Abbas, a resident of Model Town, was befriended by a girl through TikTock. She shared a location on Chandrai Road with Abbas, asking him to reach there for a date.

As the young man reached there, she took Kamran to a quarter where her four armed accomplices were already waiting for the ‘prey’.

The network was being run by three cops

The suspects held the youth at gunpoint and detained him in the quarter, where they also tortured him brutally with the butts of guns, fists and kicks, and demanded ransom for his release.

The suspects also recorded a video clip of the torture, which later surfaced on social media, showing the young man crying and requesting them to release him and ‘take whatever they wanted’. The video also shows the young man pleading to his captors that his career and reputation would be at stake if his family and relatives came to know about the episode, but the armed men continue to torture him brutally.

The official says that investigations revealed that many businessmen, known personalities and influential people had been trapped by the gang through women, including young models and actresses, and were made to pay money to the criminals.

A similar case had come to limelight in July last year when the Lahore police arrested nine suspects, including two women, on charges of honey-trapping, abducting and robbing a renowned playwright, he says.

In another case, the official says, reported in August of 2024, the Gulberg police had arrested two women, including a doctor, for allegedly blackmailing, torturing and recording objectionable videos of a businessman in a hotel room where he had been called to settle a business matter with the owner of a private company.

A deputy attorney general of Punjab was also reportedly involved in the case and the police had booked the suspects, he adds.

The official says that a gang, including a young woman, had also trapped a senior lawyer who and blackmailed him for money in Lahore.

About the fresh incident, he said, Lahore Operations DIG Faisal Kamran expanded the scope of investigation after being informed that three policemen were the key suspects, who had honey-trapped many people using the same girls in the past.

He said the DIG suspended the suspects from service, and ordered proceedings for their dismissal, besides taking action against them for defaming the department.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2025