Ashrafuddin Pirzada
PESHAWAR: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has busted a 30-member ring of extortionists involved in collecting huge amounts of extortion from well-off people by making threatening calls from Afghan numbers.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Counter Finance Terrorism Department of the CTD, Imran Shahid, told reporters that 20 members of the network had been identified. In contrast, six of the members and facilitators were arrested.
Some members of the network belonged to the same family, officials said and added that the network belonged to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Several locals from erstwhile tribal and settled districts have complained in the last several months that extortion calls were made to them from Afghan numbers.
Houses, shops and offices of some of them were attacked with hand grenades after they did not pay the externs. “The CTD Mohmand region busted the major network and recovered chequebooks, cash and cellular phones from them. Three of them were jailed while as many are being interrogated,” the DIG told reporters at the CTD headquarters.
The official added that two Afghans living here were also involved with the group and one of them had been arrested. He added that some ring members were running a honey business in Tarnab Farms.
Officials said some members were arrested after suspicious transactions through a private bank account. One of the victims was told to deposit the extortion money in the bank account from where the CTD started the investigation and reached the members and facilitators of the network.
