KARACHI: Chief of the counter terrorism department (CTD) in Sindh Police,on Thursday divulged that the traders and business community of the seasidecommercial capital of Karachi was still receiving calls for extortion fromabroad.
According to reports, the Additional Inspector General of Counter TerrorismDepartment Dr Sanullah Abbasi has said that 68 businessmen and 31 doctorsbased in Karachi have received phone calls from abroad for extortion in thepast five years. “During the same time span108 Karachiites were phoned forextortion from abroad — of which 36 callers were from South Africa and 24were from Afghanistan,” the AIG was quoted by a section of media as sayinghere on Thursday.
“The number of extortion calls has gone down each year but a complete halthas yet to be seen,” he told. Thirty-one cases of extortion calls fromabroad were reported in 2013, while the total for 2012 was 30. The figuresdeclined to 25 and 13 in 2015 and 2016 respectively, whereas 6 such caseswere reported in 2017. The figure for the current year stands at 3, withextortion calls made from the Netherlands, Afghanistan and Thailand.
“Local agents of foreign-based extortionists were arrested in Karachi,although no action has so far been taken against the extortioniststhemselves,” he said. “Pakistan will raise this matter at internationalforum,” Abbasi, adding the he will proofs to the internationalorganizations. The police chief said his department will also seekassistance from Interpol. On July 26, 2017, while addressing a newsconference here at Karachi Colonel Qaiser Khattak said two target killershave been arrested who have confessed to have killed two persons on July17, in Orangi Town Karachi.
According to Rangers’ spokesperson the accused were in contact with SouthAfrica Setup through social media whereas they have also received Rs50, 000in their account.
“They had been doing wall chalking in favor of Altaf Hussain as well,”Khattak further informed, adding that they had received praise from MQMChief through WhatsApp after the completion of “task” of killing twopersons. He also played the audio recording of the MQM founder. “The MQMfounder has praised those who killed the two people,” he said. “The timeshave changed now, the city does not get closed down on a phone call,” ColQaiser said He said that a few banned outfits are working from Afghanistan.The Sindh Rangers spokesman said that evidence has been gathered in therecent attacks on policemen recently.