PESHAWAR: The alleged failure of the Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the local police to trace a blackmailing case has claimed the life of a young man.
A source said that innumerable such complaints were pending with the FIA and police, but they did not bother to lay hand on the blackmailers to prevent the families from facing humiliation. The accused are rarely held and brought to justice.
The cybercrimes take a heavy toll on the victims and their families. Some cases even claimed lives as the police and FIA made no progress. Some of the cases are highly sensitive, considering the Pashtun society and could cause a law and order situation.
A source said a family from the suburban Peshawar approached the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing in Peshawar in December last year after pictures of one of its female members were uploaded on social media for blackmailing.
The family approached senior officials of the Cyber Crime, requesting them to expedite the process as new pages were popping up regularly to add to the humiliation and mental torture of the family.
“They lodged another complaint a couple of months later and approached the concerned section through one or the other influential people with request to find out the person or people behind the blackmailing, but things kept worsening with each passing day. Nothing was done in the case either because of the negligence of the entire wing or the lack of the technology to access the Facebook pages of the blackmailers,” said a source.
The source added that police first came to know about the case over two months back after a clash in the village. Besides, the cops of Rahman Baba Police Station and the circle concerned were formally approached by the family through two applications over a month back to find out the blackmailers who were causing mental torture to the family of the woman and her in-laws.
“As the blackmailing continued unabated with no progress in the case, Hussain Khan, the lone brother of the victim woman, committed suicide on May 25 as he could no more cope with the mental torture and stress,” said the source.
The source added the father of the girl died many years ago while their only brother had to ‘commit suicide’ to avoid facing humiliation. Even his alleged suicide could not move the police or the FIA to act.
Though the pages are not available after the death of Hussain, the situation is still tense as many fear the blackmailing may start again since no one could be arrested.
“We knocked at every door. We went to everyone in FIA with all the evidence but there was no one who could find out the accused who have blackmailing the family for many months,” said a cousin of Hussain.
He added they also met the concerned DSP and SHO many times in the case but no progress has been made.
“The victim woman was called by the police officers who heard her in detail. We provided all the evidence including record of threatening calls, SMS, Facebook posts to the police and FIA officials. To date no FIR had been lodged against anyone in the blackmailing case as they said they will have to get opinion from the legal section,” said the family member of the victim.
When approached, an official said the Cyber Crime Wing did not fall under the command of director FIA Peshawar zone and was being controlled remotely from Islamabad.
The official added the Cyber Crime Wing should realise the sensitivity of the situation and work hard to work out the cases.
The director and the deputies in Islamabad should also check regularly as to how many complaints are received daily and how many lodged by a person with no connection are being worked out. “The Facebook and other social media networks cooperate to a great extent when the local officers take a case seriously. Normally the cases of the common man go untraced even though they visit Cyber Crime Wing for months,” an official said.
There are a number of other complaints still pending with FIA and police that could claim lives and need to be worked out properly. Many officials blame the victims instead of working out the cases.