LAHORE – Organised Crime CIA Police have successfully concluded three cases of kidnapping for ransom, including a high-profile case of a 24-year-old British national woman, who along with her Pakistani husband went missing on January 10, Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Aslam Tareen said on Sunday in a press conference at his office.
The CIA Police have safely recovered the kidnapped people, sophisticated weapons and ransom-money from possession of the criminals.
Tareen told journalists that incident of kidnapping Syed Awais Haider and his British national wife Shiza for Rs 5 million ransom proved to be fake, as Awais had made a plot to extract money from his father.
Police arrested the couple and Haider’s friend, Suleman, who was hired to play the kidnapper, he said.
The CCPO said that 15-year-old 8th class student of a private school, Mudassar Mahmood was kidnapped by his class fellow for Rs 1 million ransom from Ghalib Market and former senior banker Zafar Farooq was abducted for Rs 3 million ransom from Hanjarwal. He said that Awais did MBA from the UK and married a British national Margaret, who later embraced Islam and was rechristened as Shiza but both of them were drug addicts and often overdosed.
Tareen said that the British Social Department had adopted their minor daughter and warned them of negligence, as they were not looking after their daughter properly. The couple later returned to Pakistan and started living in Karim Block, Allama Iqbal Town, he said. The CCPO informed journalists that on January 10, both were kidnapped and a case was lodged against unidentified abductors.
Tareen said that an unidentified kidnapper called Awais’s father, Asif, from Awais’s cellular phone and demanded Rs 5 million as ransom for his safe release. The CCPO said that the kidnapper also threatened to kill Awais saying that he would sell Shiza to the Taliban, if the ransom money was not paid.
Tareen said that Awais’ family paid Rs 0.5 million to the kidnappers and promised to pay the remaining amount within a couple of days. Police got record of Awais’ cellular phone calls and traced his two friends Adeel and Suleman, he said. The CCPO informed journalists that police took them into custody on which they told police about Awais’s location. Police conducted a raid and recovered the couple from room of a Liberty hotel where they were staying, Tareen said.
During interrogation, Awais told police that he had staged a ‘drama’ to collect money from his father with connivance of his wife and friends, he said.
According to the CCPO, in a separate incident, student Muddasar was kidnapped from Ghalib Market on December 29 and three accused demanded Rs 1 million as ransom. The victim’s family gave Rs 0.1 million but the accused refused to hand over the child and demanded the remaining amount, Tareen said.
The Lahore police chief informed journalists that CIA teams recovered Muddasar from Chichawatni and arrested accused Irfan, Abdur Rashid and Shahbaz. During interrogations, the accused revealed they had kidnapped Muddasar in connivance with his classmate Shahbaz who had planned to visit a recreational spot from where they would kidnap him, he said.
Tareen said that the CIA also recovered retired banker Zafar Farooq, who was also kidnapped for ransom of Rs 10 million from Hanjerwal on September 6. “The accused visited Zafar’s home to check his Corolla, which he had advertised to sell a few days back,” he said. After being arrested, the kidnappers told police that while checking Zafar’s car, they kidnapped him along with the vehicle, which they later returned to his family and directed them to sell the vehicle in order to arrange the ransom amount, Tareen said. The CCPO informed journalists that CIA police traced the kidnappers and arrested four accused including Muhammad Aslam, Abdul Hafeez, Muhammad Abid and Sheikh Asim.
Replying to a question, Tareen said that investigators have not been able to trace killers of Justice Javed Iqbal’s parents.
He said that police are investigating the matter and would soon arrest the criminals involved in killing of the elderly couple. Replying to another question, the CCPO he said that police have started investigating the incident of an 18-year-old boy falling from an airplane in North Cantt Police Station precincts in order to escape to Dubai by hiding in the plane’s wheel.
