LAHORE, Jan 30: Kidnap for ransom incidents are fast increasing in the Punjab, a crime previously related to Sindh.

Unlike rural areas of Sindh where most of the kidnap cases occur, Lahore is the most prominent city in the Punjab where frequency of the crime is very high. A kidnap for ransom of two minor boys is much talked about incident of the city these days. The children of a property dealer are in the custody of six people who had taken away cash, jewellery and a car worth over Rs 1.5 million from their house in the cantonment area a couple of days ago. They have demanded Rs5 million ransom for the release of the boys.

Police record shows an alarming increase in the incidents in the last two year. Sixty-nine kidnap for ransom cases were reported in 2001 and 43 in 2000. In the first 25 days of the year 2002 five people, including three minor boys, have been kidnapped in four incidents. Of them, a nine-year-old boy has been killed after a 24-day captivity in Jhang. The Jhang SSP had admitted police failure in the case.

Of the four cases, three have been reported in Lahore with the kidnap of a businessman, who was also said to be a relative of the Punjab governor, a Pakistan-born UK national and two minor boys. Police have failed to find a clue to the minor boys kidnapped from cantonment.

Police sources say that the number of reported cases do not reflect an exact situation of the crime as most of the incidents go unreported. “You can easily double the number of cases,” a senior Punjab police officer said admitting.

He admitted that one-day captivity of any innocent citizen was enough to prove the failure of the law enforcement agencies. However, he claimed that all kidnap for ransom victims in Lahore in 2001 had been recovered and felons arrested. Two cases reported in 2002 had also been resolved with the arrest of suspects and recovery of victims.

Quoting the latest incident of the kidnap of two minor boys, he said it was the first case of its kind in the Punjab. There was no such example in the past that dacoits took away a family member with them after looting a house, he said and lamented the police performance: “How can we defend ourselves or can satisfy a man whose two sons have been kidnapped.”

Defending the law enforcement agencies, another officer said the Punjab police did not have enough skills and facilities like modern telecommunication system and expert officers to handle such cases. “Whenever, such a case is reported, police concerned follow it up in traditional way which usually ends up in a failure,” he said.

Tracing the history, he said Rana Sarwat was the pioneer of the kidnap for ransom in the Punjab. He for the first time struck headlines when he kidnapped an industrialist about four years ago. Police succeeded in freeing the victim after a shootout with the criminals in the Township area of Lahore. Sarwat kidnapped another man last year and kept him in captivity for almost a month. The man was killed by his men in Rawalpindi when he tried to escape At present, the criminal is in the US after he escaped from Pakistan last year.

The following cases were reported in 2001 in Lahore.

Abdul Rehman was kidnapped from his house in Gulshan-i-Ravi, Habib Ahmad was kidnapped from Civil Lines and three policemen were killed in an encounter with his kidnappers, Faisal Nawaz and his colleague were kidnapped from Shadman, Mahmood Hasan was kidnapped from Bhati Gate and he was released after paying Rs50,000 ransom, Faisal Mahmood and Shahid from Batapur, businessmen Abdul Hafeez and his uncle were kidnapped by Rana Sarwat and his men from Township, Shahbaz attempted to kidnap a businessman Afzal in Sherakot, businessmen Nasir, Saad and Ghazanfar were kidnapped from Lytton Road, schoolboy Bilal was kidnapped from Ravi Road, minor boy Hasan was kidnapped from Tibbi City.

The following are the cases reported in the Punjab in 2002:

British national Amir Latif, the son of Dr Latif, was kidnapped from his house in Allama Iqbal Town, industrialist Nauman Shakil, who is said to be a relative of the Punjab governor, was kidnapped from outside his textile mill in Manga Mandi, schoolboy Abid Mumtaz, 9, was kidnapped from outside his house in Jhang and was killed, two minor sons of a property dealer were kidnapped from their house in cantonment and are still in kidnappers’ custody.