Pakistan: Extortionists calling: One-way ticket from Peshawar

The Express Tribune

When the first sinister phone call came, wealthy industrialist Z* dismissed it as an empty threat. A day later, a handwritten letter in Pashto language was sent to his Hayatabad Industrial Estate (HIE) plant in which extortionists demanded Rs200 million. Within the week, a rocket was fired at his factory from the neighbouring Khyber Agency, with this crystal clear message: pay up or perish.

While the government and the Taliban explore the possibility of an elusive peace deal, the frontline province in the battle against militancy bleeds money; industrialists and skilled professionals escape to safer ground – taking their capital and skills along – for fear of being kidnapped, milked or even killed.

Z has since fled to the United States along with his wife and young children, while his factories will wind up operations in the next few years. At least 200 direct employees will be rendered jobless as a result of the closure, with the number of runaway industrialists climbing to five. Four industrial units have already been attacked with rockets or bombs in the HIE, the largest of its kind in the province with nearly 440 units employing an estimated 120,000 people. “I am an influential and rich man and have good connections,” Z said before his swift departure. “But even I cannot deal with these thugs,” he said referring to the extortionists.

Prosperous businessmen like Z are an easy prey for extortionists in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, who use Afghan mobile SIM cards to make menacing phone calls demanding their ‘share’. Jewellers have also been targeted, along with shopkeepers on University Road and in the Saddar areas of Peshawar. Even doctors and teachers are not spared.

A local trader said that the owner of a private university in the city along with his relative who owns a system of private schools escaped to the UAE due to threats from extortionists. Around 28 doctors from teaching hospitals have taken long leaves and left the city. One Dr Amjad Taqweem fled even after payment of ransom to extortionists who had seized him from Hayatabad.

“There is no reporting of such events but extortion is rampant. Nearly every second industrialist is faced with this predicament,” a senior official of the K-P Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI) told The Express Tribune. At least 150 businessmen and industrialists have moved their factories from Peshawar to other parts of the country or shifted abroad, he added.

The KPCCI recently met the provincial chief minister and governor and demanded that the roaming facility be denied to Afghan mobile companies.

“These Afghan SIMs are openly available in the tribal areas. But there should be a ban on their sale and purchase, and most importantly, on roaming,” he maintained, adding that the police chief’s promises of a committee that will deal with these issues remain unfulfilled. The chief minister pledged to set up a separate police station in the industrial area, but locals remain skeptical.

“It is a matter of survival for us businessmen,” he said. These extortionists are very well informed; they know that no one can locate them. They know the number of your houses, vehicles and children. I personally know four industrialists who want to shift to the UK and invest there.”

Industrialists say that the absence of intimidating police battalions is one reason why the extortionists swoop down and kid people with ease. However, the boundary wall erected to stop incursions from Khyber Agency has not yielded positive results. Threatening phone calls are made; people are abducted and negotiations follow.

“Their demands fluctuate between Rs2 million and Rs200 million,” said one Peshawar industrialist, requesting anonymity.

Provincial Minister of Industries Shaukat Yousafzai said that they are pinning hopes on a specialised Anti-Terrorist Force, as well as the success of the ongoing peace talks. “We cannot provide a policeman to every man. But we are trying to solve these burning issues,” he said, adding that the police were assigned the task to fight militancy without being adequately equipped. Superintendent of Cannt Police Faisal Kamran said that around 40 FIRs were registered in extortion cases in the months of February and March, with 60 arrests. “There are gangs involved in multiple cases at a time and most of them are not militants but petty criminals taking advantage of the situation,” he said. He added that the new policy allows those under threat to register FIRs without coming to the police station, as criminals monitor their movements and get information from the intended victim’s domestic staff or guards. “Those people who receive a call for extortion should contact the local DSP by phone and he will himself reach them in plain clothes,” he added. (names have been changed to protect identity)