TOBA TEK SINGH: A Faisalabad Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team arrested Ghulam Abbas in Bhalwal on Wednesday for his involvement in the kidnapping of three Pakistanis in Iran.

A press release stated the team also facilitated the release of the kidnapped people from their captors in Iran.

Abbas had received Rs2 million as ransom from the families of the kidnapped people in Pakistan for their release.

The captors used to torture them in custody in Iran and send torture videos to their families to coerce them into paying the ransom money.

The FIA contacted its liaison office in Iran, which arranged the release of Muhammad Adnan, Kashif Mahboob, and Muhammad Dawood, all of whom belonged to Bhalwal.

Based on an information provided by the recovered individuals, the FIA team is conducting further raids to arrest their other accomplices.

According to the FIA, human smugglers exploit Pakistani immigrants attempting to illegally reach Europe via Iran by holding them for ransom. These smugglers based in Pakistan, aided by their sub-agents overseas, detain and subject immigrants. They record the footage of these harrowing experiences and send them back to their families, demanding payment for the safe release of their loved ones.

In February, three such incidents were reported, involving the torture and imprisonment of as many as 10 young men by these criminal gangs. While some managed to secure their freedom by paying ransom, others were released through the intervention of Iranian authorities, in coordination with the Pakistani embassy in Tehran.

HONOUR KILLING: A man killed his wife in Jhang on Wednesday in the name of honour.

According to the Satellite Town police, suspect Hassan Raza went to the house of Sidra Hanif in Sarwar Colony, where she was residing alone after a dispute with him. He and his unidentified accomplice shot her dead and fled.

Police are conducting raids to trace them.

ARRESTED: A team consisting of Madina Town deputy drug controller Mohsin Asghar and FIA officials raided a house in Faisal Town, Faisalabad, on Tuesday night and recovered a stock of prohibited food supplements worth more than Rs7 million.

A press release stated the team arrested Faisal Iqrar for running a business of imported supplements and unregistered therapeutic goods. He was selling these products online through a webpage called Supplement Soul.

An FIR was registered against him by the FIA.

KILLED: A trader was murdered by his rivals over an enmity in Faisalabad on Wednesday in Jhang Bazaar.

Rescue 1122 reported that Zeshan Ahmad of Chiniot Bazaar was passing on foot near the shrine of Baba Lasoori Shah when his two opponents on a motorcycle opened fire and killed him.

CASE: The woman who allegedly killed her father and was subsequently murdered by her stepbrother near Fawara Chowk in Jhang on Tuesday had no complainant in her murder case.

According to Kotwali police, no one from the family of Mehwish Parveen Baloch came forward to lodge a complaint for the registration of an FIR regarding her killing.

Her husband is already in jail in a murder case, while her father, mother, and brother-in-law (her husband’s brother) had also been murdered. Police registered her murder case against her two stepbrothers Saifullah and Ali Irfan (for abetment charges).

Complainant Maghiana police post in-charge ASI Syed Musarrat Hussain stated in the FIR that when he arrived at the murder scene, he found Ali Irfan near the body who informed the complainant that Saifullah had fled after killing Mehwish, but when the complainant asked Ali to lodge a murder complaint, he disappeared.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2024