Two alleged extortionists killed in Balakot

MANSEHRA: The police Wednesday killed two alleged extortionists belonging to Afghanistan and rescued a three-year-old boy along with his paternal aunt who were kidnapped for ransom in Balakot earlier this week.

“We traced the locations and movement routes of the extortionists with technical support from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The extortionists opened indiscriminate fire upon seeing the police and were killed in the subsequent exchange of fire,” District Police Officer (DPO) Shafiullah Khan Gandapur told reporters here.

He said the police also seized Afghan national identity cards, three cell phones, weapons and ammunition from the kidnappers.“Our investigation, assisted by law-enforcement agencies, including the ISI, is underway. We want to ascertain whether or not the deceased were involved in subversive activities elsewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or the country,” Gandapur added.

The bodies of kidnappers identified as Arman Jan and Faheem Khan were moved to the mortuary of King Abdullah Teaching Hospital. The deceased were stated to be Afghan nationals and were residing in Badaber area of Peshawar,

Explaining the events that led to the shootout, the DPO said the wife of Mohammad Waqas, a resident of Kohistan Colony, had filed an FIR with the police in Balakot. She said that her sister-in-law had taken her two-and-a-half-year-old son, Mohammad Saeed, to a faith-healer in Balakot on June 5. However, she didn’t return.The DPO stated that the extortionists later contacted the boy’s father, who works in Dubai, via phone and demanded ransom.