Extortion demands set to rise as Ramazan in Karachi
One afternoon a stranger arrived at Mohammad Faizanullah’s stationery shop and wordlessly handed the man behind the counter two items: a piece of paper with a phone number scrawled on it, and a bullet.
“The letter contained a demand for Rs200,000,” said 20-year-old Mr Faizanullah. “The man said ‘Just call this number and pay the amount, otherwise, the bullet is meant for you.’” Businesses are facing a surge in extortion demands from criminal gangs, forcing many owners to delay new investment or to relocate their families to escape the sense of insecurity gripping the city.
An expanding middle class is fuelling consumer spending but extortion is hurting confidence among thousands of family-run firms that form the backbone of the economy.
“The extortion racket has blown out of all proportion the previous year,” said Ahmed Chinoy, chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC).
Figures collected by the CPLC show there were more than 630 extortion complaints registered in Karachi from January to mid-June, compared to 589 last year. Most cases were registered by people who have refused to pay.
Police say the actual number of incidents is many times higher since the vast majority of extortion demands go unreported and victims usually decide to pay.
There is no way to know the sums involved, but police say payments run into hundreds of millions of rupees annually and that 2013 will be a record year.
Ten days after the extortionist paid his visit to Mr Faizanullah’s shop in the bustling Alam cloth market, two men riding motorbikes stopped him, his father and uncle as they were driving home from work.
One of the men, a gun visible in his waistband, told him: “You people don’t seem to understand our polite attitude. We will have to shoot you.” They demanded the men’s cellphones and roared away.
“We live under constant stress,” Mr Faizanullah said.
But he insisted that his family refused to hand over any cash.
When Javed Hanif, a doctor, answered his cellphone in June the caller reeled off a list of Dr Hanif’s personal details: his work in a government hospital, the registration number of his car, and preparations for his son’s wedding. The caller then demanded Rs500,000.
Police say thugs working for the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the dominant political party in Karachi, are the biggest extortion menace in the city.
“If some political party says they are not involved in the extortion racket, they are lying,” said Majyad Aziz Balagamwala, a former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
But nobody is immune from an extortionist’s call.
Byram D. Avari, the owner of a prominent hotel chain and a well-known figure in Karachi, refused to pay the demands of a caller who threatened to set off hand grenades at his hotels and home.
