A Karachi resident who was trading in cryptocurrency had no idea what awaited him when he was approached by men who wanted help buying cryptocurrency. He told them he didn’t do such business and they left – only to return some time later. This time they came in a mobile with official police number plates and took him away blindfolded. A CCTV camera filmed their arrival in an official police van.
Under duress, he was forced to transfer $346,000 (Rs 95 million) worth of cryptocurrency to accounts managed by his captors. Once that was done, they reset his phone and dropped him off in a remote area of the city.
The crypto trader later filed a complaint with senior police officials and the matter was investigated. It turned out that two of the men who approached him and eventually kidnapped him were serving police officers. One belongs to the Counter Terrorism Department of the Sindh Police and the other belongs to the Special Security Unit of the Sindh Police.
It is now confirmed that the official police motives of both units were used to commit the criminal act – which is nothing more than kidnapping for ransom. While the case is being further investigated, two senior officers of these police units have been removed from their posts, including CTD DSP Raja Umar Khattab, a highly decorated police officer known for playing a leading role in the fight against terrorism.
This whole sordid episode – and it is still under investigation – with the matter now before a judicial magistrate and the police investigating, shows how those charged with enforcing the law and protecting the lives of citizens abuse their authority with impunity and commit criminal acts. such criminal acts.
That the matter has come to light and is now being investigated, that the two police officers have also been arrested and prosecuted and that the two senior officers of the said units have been transferred, is a somewhat welcome sign because it demonstrates a willingness on the part of the Sindh Police, particularly Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon, to uphold the law and prosecute criminals, even if they are part of its police force. That said, because of the way law enforcement has acted in the past, there will always be a reluctance to fully trust a police-led investigation when investigating its own members. But that’s how the system works, and for the system to gain strength and become credible, we need the police to stand up, investigate and punish the black sheep in their ranks.
Sindh and in particular the Karachi police suffer from a particularly serious image problem. Even though several honest and efficient officers have been deployed in the province and in Karachi in general, the perception remains that to report a crime as simple as a stolen cell phone or telephone, people generally avoid going to the police station , or ‘thana’ as it is called locally. The “Thana culture” is still very present and strongly discourages the population from placing too much value on the police and trusting them (the police) to solve crimes or to provide reparation for criminal acts committed against citizens.
After all, we see individuals in plain clothes sitting on the back of a police mobile and being taken somewhere at any time. And with the sordid saga of this crypto trader, who knows for what purpose and to what end.
The successful prosecution and conviction of all those involved in this kidnapping and kidnapping for ransom – including the police officer – would be a small but essential step to increase public confidence in the police. And this is crucial for any civil society to function effectively and meet citizens’ needs for policing and public safety.
