Politicians among many receive extortion calls

PESHAWAR: A number of people, politicians and lawmakers, have received threats as an increase has been witnessed in cases of extortion across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent years.

A source informed that some lawmakers from Malakand division and other areas recently received threatening letters demanding extortion. Their cases are being investigated by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).

There has been an increase in calls for extortion to well-off people in parts of KP, including Peshawar and other districts. The callers are using WhatsApp numbers as well as other mediums to communicate their message.

During the current year, the CTD has registered 51 extortion cases in KP. A source said that over 425 extortion cases were registered in KP since 2021 when terror incidents surged.The figures do not include a large number of cases which were either not reported to police or only filed as a daily diary.

Some houses were also attacked with grenades in recent months apparently by the extortionists after the owners failed to pay the amount.Most of those receiving calls restrict movement, install CCTV cameras and increase their security. The situation, however, keeps the entire family under stress for a long time.

After a number of complaints of extortion calls, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police had set up a special anti-extortion desk a couple of years back in the CTD to deal with such cases and bust the networks.

The cops were instructed in 2022 to register the cases either as a first information report (FIR) or daily diary (DD) to provide some relief to the victims.It was learnt that after the instructions, 49 cases were lodged as FIRs and 368 were registered as DDs in the remaining duration of 2022.

The CTD lodged 26 FIRs in the Peshawar region, six each in Malakand and Dera Ismail Khan, four in Kohat, three each in Bannu and Mardan while one FIR was registered in Hazara in 2022. Besides, 219 DDs were registered in Peshawar, 64 in Mardan, 57 in Malakand, 13 in Bannu, nine in Kohat, six in DI Khan and no DD was lodged in Hazara the same year.

The main hurdle the KP Police face while going after the extortionists is the phone calls from non-local numbers, internet-generated resources, illegal gateways and Whatsapp numbers. Apart from various groups, criminal rings were also found involved in many calls.

It was gathered that during the last few years, hundreds of Afghan phone numbers and illegal gateways were used for making extortion calls.These numbers and illegal gateways have been shared with the relevant quarters many times to take it up at the relevant forums.

A mutual legal agreement and certain protocols are required to access the offices in other countries from where internet-supported social media calls are generated. The agreement will make the information collection easier from these resources in case of such calls.