A government contractor in Rawalpindi refused to pay the demanded ransom of Rs 15 million to a member of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Mohammad Asghar reports for Dawn. The terrorist then allegedly assaulted his home with a cracker at Dhoke Lakhan in the Dhamial neighbourhood.
Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) joined the police in their investigation of the incident after a first information report (FIR) was filed with them on Tuesday.
Mohammad Nisar, a government contractor and inhabitant of Dhoke Lakhan Chakri Road, filed a police report claiming that on October 7, 2022, he received a voicemail identifying the caller as a TTP official and demanding a ransom of Rs15 million.
Nisar had been working as a government contractor for the last 20 years.
He claimed that after the man failed to respond to his message, he resorted to his brother Mushtaq Ali’s cellphone and left him a voicemail asking him to show it to his brother.
He continued by saying that on December 28, 2022, at 4am, he heard an explosion outside his house while sleeping inside, while his wife and kids had left for their village.
He said in the FIR that he went to his house’s rooftop to investigate the incident but was unable to see anything because of the darkness. He went back to sleep. The suspect was heard telling his brother that he had given him a glimpse the previous night in a second voice message that was left for him the next day.
After that, he proceeded to his home’s rooftop where he discovered cracker fragments that had exploded on the compound wall of the roof.
