PESHAWAR: A teenage girl arrested on charges of demanding extortion from local traders in the name of a militant outfit was on Monday sent to prison by a judicial magistrate here.

The girl stated to be 17 years old belongs to Mashokhel area here and was arrested a day earlier by the local police.

She was produced before the court of judicial magistrate, Johar Ijaz, by the Faqirabad police officials seeking her physical custody for further investigating the case. However, the court sent her to prison on judicial remand for 14 days.

The police claimed that around two months ago they received a complaint from a local trader named Zahir Gul who claimed that he had been receiving calls on his cellular phone from unidentified persons asking him to pay Rs1 million extortion, failing which his children would be kidnapped.

The police alleged that they started investigating the case and came to know that extortion was also demanded from five other local traders from the same phone number, which was registered in the name of someone else, but was also used by the arrested woman.

The police alleged that during initial interrogation the suspect claimed that the complainant was her relative and that she was only teasing him. She also allegedly told the police that she called several other persons too for fun as she enjoyed them being scared after her phone calls.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2015

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