KARACHI, Oct 4: Police have arrested two members of a gang of kidnappers who are suspected to be involved in many cases of kidnapping for ransom and other crimes.

Police took on Friday further remand of the accused from the court of the judicial magistrate East-II, Bashir Channa, till Oct 8, for investigations. On Oct 1, the court had remanded the accused in police custody for four days.

The arrests were made on the complaint of a trader, Fahimuddin Ahmed, who had been kidnapped and forced to sign blank cheques and promissory notes. He was threatened with dire consequences if he or his family approached police.

Fahimuddin, however, reported the matter at Korangi Industrial Area police station where an FIR 442/2002 was registered against Rana Nasir, Shahab Manna and others. According to the FIR, Fahim was taken away forcibly and kept in solitary confinement. He was forced to sign documents, cheques, promissory notes and blank affidavits. He had been detained for hours and was roughed up before being released.

Police sources said after he was released Fahim went to a hospital for medicolegal examination and reported the matter to the Korangi Industrial Area police. Inspector Chaudhry Mohammed Arif of Korangi Industrial police station was appointed investigation officer of the case.

The complainant was not satisfied with the pace of investigations, so at his request the case was transferred to sub-inspector Mohammed Akram, posted at Sharifabad police station. SI Akram arrested Rana Nasir and Shahab Manna. However, three other members of the gang, Naveed, Khalid and Saeed, were still at large, police sources said.

The sources said certain quarters were pressuring police to release Nasir and Shahab, and the case was transferred to Inspector Sohail at Sharifabad police station on the instructions of DSP investigation Liaquatabad Akbar Sanjrani. The sources said attempts were being made to get the two accused released through underhand deals.

When contacted, Inspector Sohail denied any deal and said investigations were being carried out on merit.

However, the sources said police were under tremendous pressure from some personnel of the defence forces for releasing the suspects.

“The gang of kidnappers has two dozen members who have trapped innocent people and extorted them through various tactics,” the police sources said.