THERE is something very fearful that is happening in Karachi, which my husband experienced recently at the notorious Plaza auto-parts market on MA Jinnah Road. He had once been a regular visitor to the place for getting spare-parts and accessories for his cars over the years. This time he was visiting the place after several years, and found to his horror what the place has become today.

He got some little additions done to the car for about Rs3,700. Soon afterwards, he was surrounded by about 15 men who started ‘selling’ some more things for the car. He refused, but they would just not listen. He kept on refusing, but they all got together in their ‘pleas’.

Ignoring my husband’s pleas to leave him alone, they opened up the door and took him hostage. He kept on telling them he did not want their services, but the more he would tell them, the more insistent the men would get. Some of them forcibly changed the channel linings of the car-doors, while my husband was kept engaged by the rest of them.

Then came the scariest part of this horror story. When they were done, the men asked my husband to pay Rs300,000 for the job that had been supposedly ‘done’ on that old 2005 model car, or, else, they would not let him go. He was absolutely shocked. Gradually, more people started gathering around him, telling him he better pay because, after all, the job had actually been ‘done’.

My husband was kept hostage with his car, and was ultimately released on paying Rs125,000. They were so audacious that they actually mocked my husband when he said he would call the police, telling him plainly that it would be of no use.

My husband came home completely flabbergasted, still struggling to believe what had happened to him. He is in a state of shock and mental trauma even today. We have the name and cellphone number of the person to whom he was made to transfer the amount. But what do we do with that? The goons challenged the writ of the state, saying they did not fear the police. Will the city police chief have such happenings investigated?

Name withheld on request
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2024