Doctors receive threatening calls from Afghanistan

Extortionists active again

PESHAWAR: A number of doctors in the city in recent weeks have received threatening phone calls and messages from Afghanistan-based militants demanding extortion money. On condition of anonymity, a prominent doctor told The News that he was under tremendous stress after receiving such a call several days ago.

“My assistant got the call as the caller used the phone number that we print on our letterhead meant for patients. The man making the threatening phone call demanded payment of money somewhere in the Landikotal-Torkham area in Khyber Agency,” he recalled.The worried physician said the caller warned of dire consequences if the amount wasn’t paid. He said the caller referred to it as donation to enable them to continue fighting.

Sources said that about 20-25 doctors in Peshawar have reportedly received such direct phone calls as well as messages on WhatsApp. They said this started happening about two months ago and all the phone calls were made from Afghan SIMs. It meant that the militants-cum-kidnappers-cum-extortionists were operating from Afghanistan.

Generally, Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants are involved in this criminal activity. The militant group most notorious in the extortion business is Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter faction of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) headed by Abdul Wali aka Omar Khalid Khorasani.

The former spokesman of this faction, Ehsanullah Ehsan, recently defected and surrendered to the Pakistani security forces. In his recorded confessional statement, which was shown on TV channels, he admitted the group’s links with the Afghan intelligence agency, NDS, and India’s RAW, and also conceded its involvement in extortions, kidnappings for ransom, acts of terrorism and other crimes.

The doctor who spoke to The News after receiving the threatening phone call said he had reported the case to the police, but was unsure if he would receive any help. He added that the demands for extortion and the accompanying threats had made the doctors worried and concerned about their and their families’ safety.

It is true that acts of terrorism, kidnappings for ransom and extortion calls have registered a decrease in Peshawar and rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the issues haven’t been fully resolved.

The police and other law-enforcement agencies have busted some of the gangs of kidnappers and extortionists, but the real challenge is still posed by the Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants who operate freely in Afghan territory not far from the Pakistani border.

Pakistan had asked the Afghan government to take action against these gangs and stop them from using Afghan SIMs to make threatening calls to people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and elsewhere, but Kabul didn’t give any positive response.