Giving technology use a whole new dimension, the police have conjured up new ways of blackmail to fleece couples at Sea View, it is reliably learnt. In the violence-stricken metropolis where recreational sites have been divided on ethno-linguistic grounds, the picnickers run for the sea side for entertainment. Instead, they fall prey to police, and its bizarre manoeuvres . Sea View is a renowned picnic point which is located in the tranquil Clifton town, where a multitude of people visit on a daily basis to bear the heat in the current hot and humid conditions.
In this peaceful spot, the capital police have deployed a force for ‘snap-checking’ ostensibly to provide a sense of security to the visitors but in reality they insecure them. If you visit Sea View, you might believe that the picnic point is the city’s most sensitive area. There is police at every entry and exit point of seaside and for snap-checking and a number of policemen have been deployed on motorcycles for patrolling around the area.
Even so, in reality these policemen remain busy hunting down couples to make money from them. In reality the practice has been going on for years, but the police have adopted new ways of minting money from the said couples by courtesy technology. In this new ‘groundbreaking’ technique, the policemen capture pictures of couples via their cell-phones to blackmail them for money. The area of refreshment cabins along seaside is of particular focus for the police in their quest of spying on such couples against few pennies. The people working in these cabins inform the police through their cell phones whenever they see a couple at any point of sea side.
On a tip-off, a police party reached the spot to interrogate the visiting couple and one of them starts capturing pictures of the couple through a cellphone camera. In a brief visit of Sea View, a policeman was seen busy capturing pictures of a couple while his colleagues assumed themselves by passing commentary on the scene. Later, they took some money from the pair and left after asking them to leave from Sea View.
The couple, who wished not to be named, told Pakistan Today that they arrived at Sea View for picnic but police harassed them for some money. “When we arrived here, a waiter at of the cabin advised us to sit in back in shade to avoid sun heat. In 10 minutes, two policemen on motorcycles reached there and one of them started capturing pictures of us. When we requested them to stop taking pictures, they asked for money – a sum in thousands! I had Rs 2,000 in my wallet and they demanded Rs 5,000 and threatened that if the money was not paid, they would upload our pictures on internet. After I told them that I have only Rs 2,000 then they searched my pockets, took Rs 2000 and directed us to leave the Sea View as early as possible. They also threatened us that if they saw us again at sea side, they would arrest us and send us to prison,” one of them said.
When introduced, the policemen sitting in Darakhshan police post at Sea View welcomed this scribe and as we talked candidly they disclosed that they minted enough money from visiting couples to not be particularly bothered about the salary from police department.
They said that the workers of the cabin spy for them. “They told us about couples sitting in objectionable postures in shades. We go there, take pictures and get enough money from them so that we can enjoy dinner in night,” one of the cops said. When they were asked about reasons behind black-mail, they responded that every policeman hankered after deployment at Darakhshan police station and for this they even invest some money because there is no risk to life either in the peaceful town, while a myriad of opportunities existed of making solid bucks.
Clifton Town SP Dr Farrukh, when approached for comments, verified that the policemen were engaged in such unethical and unlawful activity. He said that they had a number of complaints against some policemen who black-mail the couples by using their cell phones. He added that the policemen captured pictures of couples and blackmailed them to pocket as much money as they could. If they looted Rs 20 from a common visitor then they can mint up to Rs 20,000 from couples if they captured them in their cell-phones,” he acknowledged.
