RAWALPINDI, Sept 30: The incidents of kidnapping for ransom are on the rise in the district as some 30 cases are pending with the two anti-terrorism courts and 17 new cases have been registered by the police this year.

According to record of the two anti-terrorism courts that have jurisdiction in Rawalpindi region, including Attock, Rawalpindi district, Chakwal, Jhelum and Islamabad, 17 cases are pending with ATC-II and 13 with ATC-I.

The courts have not managed to decide the cases speedily as each court disposes of only three cases every few months, resulting piling of these cases with these courts.

According to law, kidnapping for ransom cases are tried in the ATC to avoid panic among the masses, said Advocate Rafaqat Bashir Awan.

He said the rising number of cases had more to do with socio-economic problems than with law and order situation in the country. The yawning gap between the haves and have-nots, poverty and unemployment are some of the reasons for the swell in these cases, he added.

SP Rana Shahid, who has been involved in solving a number the kidnapping for ransom cases, seconded the advocate, saying majority of the arrested kidnappers in recent times were the poor and needy who resorted to this criminal activity in the bid to earn easy money.

Though the SP claimed that the police had busted some gangs, involved in the kidnapping, from NWFP operating in Rawalpindi in the last few years, there is a marked surge in the incidents in the Pindi region.

The SP said the recently arrested were not professional criminals but poverty-stricken needy people. “They resort to kidnapping for earning money without knowing how heinous the crime is and what repercussions it can have on the society,” he maintained.

The kidnappers prefer to take away mature people as they are easy to handle and usually in the kidnapping of children, house servants or close relatives are involved, the SP said.

He said some people do not report to police for the fear of the kidnapped being killed.