TOBA TEK SINGH: Jhang police busted a gang whose members used to extort money from the citizens by impersonating officials of intelligence agencies and security forces.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Jhang SP investigations Usman Munir Saifi claimed that the gang was headed by a young man, Shahnawaz, who held an MPhil degree in Physics. Other members of the gang included Shoaib Amjad, Wasim Abbas, Shahzad Ahmad, Muhammad Nazir and Faisal Iqbal who impersonated officers by wearing uniform of the Military Intelligence, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and other intelligence agencies. They would ‘arrest’ innocent people to extort money from them by levelling serious charges like terrorism against them.

The SP said police were already after the gang members and as soon as the suspects reached Adda Khanuana to pick up one Muhammad Sarwar, policemen arrested them.

In the initial probe, the gang members confessed that they had set up their office in a rented house on the Chiniot Road, Jhang, and they had extorted money from dozens of people in various cities while cases of fraud had also been registered against the suspects with police stations of Lahore.

Suspects used to pick up people on charges, including terrorism

KILLED: A one-and-a-half years old girl drowned after her father threw her into Jhang Branch Canal at Dandewal Bridge over estrangement of his wife in Gojra.

According to Nawan Lahore police, Sheikh Abid Rasool, a resident of New City locality of Jhang, went to meet his wife at his in-laws’ at Nawan Lahore to reconcile with her but she refused to go with him. At this, he snatched his minor daughter, Arooj Fatima, from his wife. He took his daughter to the Jhang Branch Canal where he threw her into the canal. As a result, she drowned.

Rescue 1122 divers took the child’s body out while the locals overpowered the suspect and handed him over to police. A murder case had been registered against him.

MURDERED: An old man was murdered and his son was shot by unidentified person(s) at Chak 213-JB in the Mochiwala police area of Jhang.

Complainant Muhammad Azam claimed, in the first information report (FIR) that his father, Nawab Khan (85), and elder brother, Naseer Ahmad (65), were asleep on the carts outside their outhouse on Khoi Adda Link Road when unidentified person(s) shot his father dead and injured his brother early in the morning. The injured man was admitted to the Jhang District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

Police said a suspected man of the village had been arrested for interrogation.

Meanwhile, Faisalabad Regional Police Officer Dr Moin Masood and Jhang District Police Officer Rashid Hidayat handed over 73 stolen or snatched motorcycles to their owners.

A press release said two trucks, two cars and a number of solar panels and other valuables were also delivered to their owners.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2022