Rise in Extortion causes severe damage to KPK, 

as Pak Army folds hand at bay

Soon after the Taliban Pakistan entered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KPK), high rise in extortion have been reported. This has been adversely affecting the businessmen as well as Government officials and the lawmakers.

Recently there is a speculation going on whether TTP is behind the extortion or if someone else under the guise is setting the entire stage. As we know, Pakistani army are the world's sixth-largest military  whereas, the total strength of the TTP is less than a third of Pakistan army. If army wants, it can eliminate TTP in a few days but why is that the Taliban could not be controlled even after such a peace deal?  

In a recent program aired by the Arab News, they interviewed at least seven traders who had received extortion demands in recent months. Ilhas Khan,  a well-known trader in the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, recalled the incident where he ended up getting a phone call soon after his house got struck by a grenade. The person at the other end warned him saying, “Next time, the entire home will be blown up if you don’t pay Rs300 million ($1.2 million).”

Khan stated that the following days were stressful as he held a series of phone negotiations with the caller and finally negotiated the demand down through the help of intermediaries, subsequently paying a smaller sum.

According to a police report filed with the local counter terrorism department, another incident also occurred where 10 employees of a telecom company were kidnapped by the Taliban militants. A ransom of Rs100 million ($418,000) were demanded for their release.

Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, said anonymous calls demanding protection were being made both from Afghanistan and within Pakistan.
“Different people have received calls for extortion, some have registered FIRs and others have not,” Saif told Arab News, saying the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and police took immediate action whenever such cases were reported.

 TTP have managed to step up attacks in recent months and both police and government officials as well as locals report hundreds of insurgents have returned — as have demands for extortion.

Not all calls, he said, were from TTP militants. “Some calls are also made by criminals and extortionists,” the spokesperson said.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Inspector General of Police, Moazzam Jah Ansari, CTD Chief Javed Iqbal Wazir, and spokespersons for the Pakistani foreign office and army and Afghanistan’s information ministry did not respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment.
Malik Imran Ishaq, president of the Industrialists’ Association Peshawar (IAP), said militancy and extortion had caused “severe damage” to the business fraternity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Twenty-eight of our members have shut their industrial units in Peshawar and moved to Punjab to set up factories there.

The shutting of this industrial units from KPK, will gradually result in the unemployment of people in terms of lakhs. The educated youth of KPK will either have to leave their homeland and move to foreign countries or else work on low wages in the industrial units that have moved to Punjab.

EXPLOITATION:
KPK has the potential to be the richest province in all the surrounding regions, if only its own resources money is spent on it. KPK is host to a large array of minerals like gas, oil fields, mines of marble, gems stone, emeralds etc., reconnaissance surveys have revealed that there are also rich amount of precious metals like gold, gypsum, chalcopyrite and uranium.

The Pakistan Army does not wish for people’s attention to be diverted towards the economy of KPK, or see the potential that KPK can thrive and do better without Pakistan’s help. This is why KPK is deliberately not made a crime free region despite the Pakistan military having the power to do so.