KARACHI, June 20: Various gangs of cheats are active in public transport these days, and they deprive people of cash, mobile phones and also threaten them of dire consequences if they report the matter to the police.

Moreover, three or four armed youths operate in various gangs and usually pickup their target sitting alone in a public transport and ask him to accompany them at gun-point. Commuters or even pedestrians are facing these new methods of extortion by armed youth in almost entire city.

Ahsan Ali, 30, said that he was traumatized by such a gang recently when he was commuting between his home to office in the downtown. Ahsan said he suffered minor bruises when he jumped out of a bus after he started receiving threats from a gang of three. The three suspects boarded the minibus near Tariq Road.

He said that one of the suspects pointed pistol at him from under his shirt and started threatening him. They frightened him to such an extent that in sheer frustration he jumped out of the minibus as it stopped at the traffic signal at the junction of Sharah-i-Quaideen and Sharea Faisal.

An identical incident occurred with Mohammad Saleem who was travelling in minibus of route W-11. According to Saleem, he was heading to his office near Tower, when three young men boarded the vehicle near Jamia Cloth Market.

Saleem was sitting on the back seat of the minibus. Two suspects took the seat beside the victim. One of them took out his pistol and started threatening Saleem, telling him that they were looking for him since long.

"They took out whatever cash I had and later told me to get down from the vehicle along with them," the young victim narrated. Ironically, none of the passengers sitting in the middle and front section of the minibus intervened.

These types of holdups are taking place, especially in minibuses of route W-11 and W-18, said Saleem who made his personal inquiries and talked to other people commuting in public transport.

Such incidents are not limited to the public transport vehicle. Even pedestrians are not spared by these armed thugs. Zameer Alam, an employee of a private distribution company, was taken away at gunpoint by two armed men in Liaquatabad recently.

Narrating his ordeal to Dawn, Zameer said that he was walking near Firdaus Shopping Mall when an armed youth came pointed out his pistol directing me to sit on the motorcycle.

They made me sit between them and took me to a government school where some of their associates were already present. The armed youths took me inside the premises and gave me a severe beating.

You resembles with so and so, if you wear long hairs and some amendments be made with the beard, they told me. Though I tried to prove my identity, but they were not interested in what I was saying, Zameer recalled.

They took whatever cash I had, totalling Rs1,000, cell phone and told me to say my last recites. A little later, they said to me that we are getting confused over your identity and we are allowing you to go. Don't be smart by going to the police, they added.

"Finally, the armed men let me off at 8 pm, after keeping me under detention for over four hours," Zameer recalled. This type of extortion is also taking place in the public transport plying on I.I. Chundrigar Road, a daily commuter of the route said.