Young man’s kidnap drama flops in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: City police and intelligence agencies spent a hectic night Wednesday searching for a retired air force officer`s kidnapped son only to discover that the youth had faked his kidnapping.

Helped by the location of the last ransom call traced by the intelligence, Koral police found Ammar Hussain, 21, lolling in a hotel room at Peshawar Mor.

Startled at the sight of police, he offered contradictory explanations for his presence in the room that he had hired around 11pm in his own name.

Besides a scolding from the family, the young man faces punishment from a court for sending state machinery into a spin by his `drama`.

Police said it would submit a report to the District and Sessions Court of Islamabad under PPC 182 to take action against Ammar for providing false information with intent to cause public servants to use their lawful powers to the injury of another person.

His father, Squadron Leader (retired) Syed Hassan Farooq Naqvi, had raised alarm on Wednesday night after Ammar went out of their house in Soan Garden just to switch on the water pump but did not return for quite some time. Search and inquiries made in the neighbourhood proved futile.

The family`s worries over Ammar`s mysterious disappearance turned into panic when the father received a SMS from Ammar`s mobile phone reading: “Papa save me. They are taking me away and will kill me.”

Frantic return calls made by the family however found his phone switched off.

Now extremely worried, the father went to Koral police station around 11:30pm to report that he suspected his son had been kidnapped. The police accordingly registered a kidnapping case against unidentified persons.

As the police and other agencies swung into action, the father received another call from his son`s mobile phone in the early hours of Thursday. It was Ammar himself speaking. “They will kill me,” was all he said when the call ended. Just before dawn, a SMS landed from the same mobile phone demanding Rs1 million in ransom.

That sent the retired squadron leader scurrying back to the Koral police station, with air force and intelligence agencies officials accompanying him. There the complaint was changed from suspected kidnapping to kidnapping for ransom, which is rated a bigger crime in law.

By early morning, investigators, using sophisticated phone call tracking systems, succeeded in tracing Peshawar Mor as the general location from where the mobile phone calls were made. A raiding team was immediately dispatched there to trace the whereabouts of `the kidnap victim`.

Eventually, while searching the hotels and guest houses in the area, the team came upon the name of Ammar Hussain in the guests` book of Dream Land Hotel. Police cordoned off the hotel and broke into the room to find Ammar relaxing there all alone.

According to the hotel staff, Ammar came there alone about 11:00pm on Wednesday and booked the room for Rs600. Brought to Koral police station for questioning, he exposed himself as the hero of a flopped drama by saying “I was kidnapped and the culprits brought me in the hotel” and then contradicting himself by saying “I went there of my own free will.”

After the questioning, and a medical check up, police handed him to his father. The police said apparently Ammar staged the kidnapping for ransom drama to defraud his father of Rs1 million.

The complete article can be found at Dawn News.

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