KARACHI, June 14: Following a 25-day-long ordeal at the hands of kidnappers, Dr Shabbir Nawaz, 53, was highly critical of cellphone companies which, according to him, are abetting criminals around the country, especially in Karachi, by issuing undocumented SIMs.

Talking exclusively to Dawn here on Thursday, Dr Nawaz said that his kidnappers had a sack full of different SIMs, which they used to make calls to different people.

“After making a call they used to paste a small chit on the SIM before placing it in a specially designed roll,” Dr Nawaz said.

Narrating his ordeal, Dr Nawaz recalled that it was the night of May 18 when he was returning home from his clinic in Quaidabad that he was kidnapped.

He said that while he was driving on the road to his residence in Brohi village in Bin Qasim Town, a speeding car came from behind with its headlights on high-beam, and as he allowed it to pass, it blocked him and four armed men came out.

“They took me to their vehicle and blind-folded me. The first thing I heard was their chief making a call saying “Saeen sab khair aah, kukar pakrio aahey’ (everything’s ok, sir, we’ve got him),” he recalled.

“They took me to at least seven or eight different places in the interior of Sindh. From what I was able to gather, I was taken to Larkana, Dadu, Chor and several other places. I managed to see some of the milestones while I was travelling, peeping through the blind-fold,” he said.

“I was chained at my ankles. They did not allow me to stand up. It was on the third day of my kidnapping that they contacted my family asking for a huge ransom amount,” said Dr Nawaz.

“On May 20, at 2234 hours Dr Nawaz’s family received a call from an anonymous person calling from 0346-2534476 claiming to have kidnapped him, demanding Rs10 million as ransom. The family did not offer any amount, while the cell site was traced to Thatta,” a Citizens Police Liaison Committee official told Dawn.

Dr Nawaz said that the kidnappers would start talking on their cellphones from the morning, which seemed to continue without end, while the continuous conversations made him sick. At the conclusion of each conversation, the kidnappers used to change the SIM, keeping the previous one in the special roll.

CPLC chief Sharfuddin Memon told Dawn that Dr Shabbir Nawaz’s release was secured after paying a nominal amount of ransom, but stopped short of giving more details saying that the CPLC and the AVCC are in the process of busting the gang.