Police rescue hostage after hi-tech drama
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Frontier police traced and recovered 27-year-old regional manager of the Credit Initiation Unit, UBL Karachi headquarters, Hamid Umar Samin, within five days of his abduction from Mardan, NWFP.
Two of the kidnappers have been arrested while three including the mastermind is missing. Mobile phone and on-line banking were the two major tools that helped the police reach the criminals.
The most intriguing part of the whole episode is the naming of a politician belonging to a leading political party, by one of the arrested abductors for hiring them for this job. The Frontier police have with it the name of the unverified politician but Sindh police is expected to follow the matter and the case is being shifted to it for being a Karachi case.
Another interesting twist of this whole story is that the kidnappers were hired and called from Mardan to abduct a son of a Karachi Memon, who owns a silk mill. But upon their failure to find the Memon’s son, they had their hand on the banker to ensure that their trip to Karachi does not go waste.
DIG CID Frontier Ahsan Tufail, who has reportedly played pivotal role to reach the abductors, was shy to reveal the name of the politician named by the abductors. Tufail was also reluctant to share much about the case for some unexplained “sensitivities involved”.
He, however, confirmed that the Frontier police would soon be handing over the accused to Sindh Police, whose team is already in Frontier to get the criminals transferred to Karachi. Meanwhile a police source while sharing the details of the investigations revealed that the unverified politician from Karachi early last month contacted one Fazle Rabi, who reportedly lost his one eye in a police encounter, in Mardan to get the son of the Memon, whose full name is not known to the arrested kidnappers, kidnapped.
Rabi, presently absconding, immediately flew to Karachi to get the deal done. Next day he contacted a twice jailed convict carjacker Qazi Hanif alias Major and another person known as Fauji to immediately fly to Karachi where they were given the task. A white Toyota Corolla bearing fake green number plate, belonging to the politician, was handed over to them along with two gunmen named as Ustad and Tariq.
On the very first day of their field operation, they succeeded to locate the Memon’s son but could not act as the young Memon was well guarded. But in the later three four days, they could not find the young Memon anywhere. On this, they were told by Rabi to leave Karachi but they demanded for the promised money. Rabi told them that they could not be paid unless the job is done.
But instead of returning empty handed, they decided to look for a new target. Late in the night of September 19, they found the young banker driving a latest model Honda Car bearing attractive Islamabad number (HS-100) in Clifton. While overtaking the car, the young man was signalled to stop on the roadside.
The banker complied. As he stopped on the roadside, one of the abductors approached him telling him that Saab sitting in the white Corolla is calling him. Thinking that the Saab, sitting in a staff car, might be some friend of his father — Ghani Samin, a BS-21 officer, presently financial adviser to the finance ministry — Umar Samin followed the man to the white Corolla where he found the man pointing gun at him. He was asked to get into the car that he did accordingly.
One of the abductors drove Umar’s car while others squeezed him in the rear seat of the Corolla and started questioning him about his job, his father and their financial position. His wallet was also searched finding four credit cards, a few ATM cards etc. Through this brief questioning and the wallet search, the abductors concluded that their victim had the worth to get chashed.
At this point both the cars were again stopped on a roadside where the Corolla’s green number plate was fitted on Umar’s Honda. Umar was shifted in his own car, which started racing out Karachi while the other car had returned.
With few short stopovers the abductors left Karachi, crossed Sindh and entered Punjab without being stopped or checked by anybody. When they reached the DG Khan, the car hit a forward moving truck from back thus leaving Qazi and the hostage injured. Umar got multiple fractures in his left arm while Qazi’s hand was also fractured.
The car got damaged but its engine was still in a running condition. In the same city, Qazi got his hand bandaged by a local doctor whereas the hostage was not allowed to move out of the car despite his bleeding arm and severe pain.
Once Qazi got the first aid, they moved on and crossed Punjab and entered NWFP and reached Mardan. Umar, moved to a deserted house, was given the impression that he was in Afghanistan.
While the poor banker was waiting for his unknown fate, there was an unusual activity all around to find him. The very next day of his kidnapping from Karachi, his office colleague got upset for not finding him in the office. They waited for hours and hours but close to the bank closing time, they approached the police and informed his family in Islamabad. There was no clue initially as to what would have happened but their worries increased when they did not make any contact on the Umar’s mobile.
The concerned mobile company was immediately contacted, which confirmed that the signals of Umar’s mobile were tracked in the interior Sindh. On September 22 Ghani Samin flew to Karachi to register an FIR at Clifton police station but by that time the Sindh police, the intelligence agencies and even the Karachi Corps were alert to solve the apparently dark case.
On 23rd, the Sindh police got yet another clue to mobile link found in Mardan, NWFP. The IG Frontier, Rifaat Pasha, was immediately contacted, who without wasting any time and feeling the sensitivities involved assigned CID DIG Ahsan Tufail and DIG Dr Suleman to waste no time in tracking down the abductors and getting the hostage released.
Meanwhile the Karachi UBL had set up a control room to monitor as if any of the credit cards or ATMs owned by the hostage, would be used. The police were sure that it would be done. They got a major breakthrough on 23rd when a Mardan bank’s cash point was used to draw 20,000 from Umar’s ATM.
The Frontier police immediately installed video camera focusing the bank cash point and also deployed plain clothed police in and around other banks of the city also. The banks were also told to slow down their cash point by using different techniques so they could have enough time to react and catch the Umar’s ATM user.
On September 24, a person was found visiting the same bank’s cash point but did not draw money. Looking all around uncomfortable, he rushed to his motorbike parked just outside the bank and rode away. Police, watching from a distance, found him suspicious. He was followed but could not be got hold of as he entered small streets. However, his motorcycle number — Qazi 1 — was noted and conveyed to all police pickets.
Now the police have the video of the man and the motorcycle number. Within no time they found that the motorcycle belonged to Qazi Hanif, who suspecting the police movement in Mardan had fled to a nearby village called Fatima. Police reached him there too and arrested him and his son, who was caught by the video using ATM. Qazi spilled the beans and disclosed whatever was in his apparent knowledge.
Before the police could reach the house where the hostage was held, the captors had moved Umar out and got him in a car and fled. Umar thought he was taken to the killing field but to his good luck he was thrown out of the moving car. He thought he was in Afghanistan but to his surprise he saw a milestone not far from him announcing that Mardan is a few kilometres away.
He attempted to stop some speeding vehicles but nobody stopped except a man on the motorbike who took him to a nearby public call office from where he first talked to his traumatic mother and then his father, who was monitoring the whole operation from Karachi. His father instantly informed the police his location, which ultimately ended his five-day long ordeal.
The young man is now with his family in Islamabad. He is getting treatment of his multiple fractured arm. Father of the son when contacted said that he had no word to thank all those who had helped him in tracking down and finally recovering his son. Both father and son are now planning to go to Makkah to perform Umra to thank Allah Almighty for saving Umar’s life.
The police have, however, some serious concerns. They want to catch the absconders including the mastermind Fazle Rabi, Fauji and others besides solving the riddle of the unverified politician. They perhaps still have many sleepless nights to get hold of the gang of kidnappers and carjackers.
source : the news
surprised but please to see Pakistani Police from different states working professionaly