CHINIOT: Lalian police arrested two suspects and booked nine members of a gang, including three women, for honey-trapping two businessmen in separate cases.

According to police, the gang members, including Musarrat Bibi, Sumbal Bibi, Shahid Imran, Mohsin Abbas, Allah Dad, Mohsin Iqbal and Javed Haral, had honey-trapped a businessman of Lalian. They came to the car showroom Zain Motors, owned by Akbar Ali, and checked some vehicles as customers on Feb 18, 2025. Musarat Bibi had taken the mobile phone number of Akbar and later started chatting with him.

The other day, she came to his shop, asking him to accompany her to inspect a vehicle in Sargodha that she wanted to purchase and Akbar went with her in a car. When they reached a house, Musarrat’s accomplices allegedly removed his clothes and started making his video. They snatched Rs375,000 from him and forced him to transfer another Rs200,000 online, threatening him to post his video.

In another case, Javed, Shafqat Abbas, Mohsin Abbas and Noreen Bibi went to the shop of Muhammad Abbas Khan, a stone supplier, at Lalian and demanded charity.

Later on, Noreen Bibi developed a contact with Khan. One day, she called Abbas to accompany her to some charity event and they went in his car. After covering some distance, her accomplices intercepted the car and took him out of his vehicle at gunpoint and tied him to the backseat of his car.

They also removed his clothes and started making a video. They snatched Rs1.8m from him and demanded more for his release.

The police booked all the gang members in two separate FIRs and arrested Mohsin Iqbal and Javed Haral. An amount of Rs700,000 and two motorcycles were also recovered from them. The hunt for their other gang members is going on.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2025