LAHORE - Investigation police on Wednesday claimed to have smashed a gang of kidnappers by arresting its three members who were wanted to the police in several cases of kidnapping for ransom. The investigators have also recovered police uniforms, blue revolving-light, cell phones, a bike, a car, and automatic weapons from their possession.
Lahore DIG (Investigation) Zulfiqar Hameed while addressing a press conference told reporters that an ex-constable was the ringleader of the six-member gang. He said that the arrested criminals used to intercept private cars on the roads by introducing themselves as policemen.
They used to kidnap the victims on the pretext of taking them to police station. Later, they contacted the victim families to demand millions of rupees as ransom money for the safe release of the abductees.
The police officer said that the members of this gang had abducted Mohammad Usman from Kot Lakhpat area and released him after receiving Rs 900,000 ransom from his family. Similarly, they kidnapped Umair, the son of a jeweler Sheikh Zulfiqar from Gulshan Iqbal, and released him after receiving Rs 3.5 million as ransom.
They had also abducted Adnan Shaukat from Mustafa Town and Fraz Maqsood, an account officer of the National Bank, from Sabzazar area and released them after accepting Rs1.4 million and Rs2.3 million as ransom respectively. The arrested kidnappers were identified as Faiz-ur-Rehman, Qayum Qureshi and Adnan alias Dani. The DIG said that the police are conducting raids to arrest the remaining members of the gang including its ringleader Rehan, a former police constable.