File photo of a market in Peshawar. Twitter
A member of the Insaf Traders’ Wing—a group of traders affiliated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)—this week urged party chairman Imran Khan to meet with them to achieve consensus on how to tackle a rise in incidents of extortion and kidnapping in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
“I would like to bring to your kind attention that extortion and kidnapping have started again in KP, especially in Peshawar,” read the letter dated Dec. 12 that was marked “urgent and important.” Warning that the situation had become “alarming,” it referred to hand grenades thrown at the homes of former minister Haji Muhammad Javed and Senator Hidayatullah as recent examples.
Stressing that the deteriorating situation had been conveyed to the “highest possible level” of the PTI-led government in KP, the letter regretted that “no action has been taken” so far. “The people of KP and especially the people of Peshawar are very scared and concerned about the rising trend of extortion and kidnapping,” it said. “It is requested to please intervene and take concrete steps to control this situation,” it added.
Without specifying what it was referring to, the letter also said that it wished to bring to the PTI leadership’s attention the reasons for snatching and killing of people who refuse to cooperate with criminals. “One recent example is killing of Pakistan Custom official who was held at gunpoint in posh area of Gul Bahar, Peshawar and later killed after looting,” it said. According to police, Arbab Shabir Khan, a former superintendent of the Customs Department, was returning from Attock to Peshawar in his car when unidentified armed men sprayed his car with bullets.
The letter concluded by urging the PTI leadership to meet with the business community “to further discuss and to reach a consensus.”
There has been a significant surge in criminal and terrorism incidents across KP in the past year, with reports alleging that even provincial ministers were being forced to pay extortion to avoid retaliatory action. According to local media, several local lawmakers have decamped to Islamabad in recent months to protect themselves from criminal action. There are also worrying reports of businesses wrapping up operations in KP, which could spell disaster for the provincial economy.