Analysis: Kidnapping A Multimillion-Pound Industry In Pakistan, Times Online, 5 March 2010
EXCERPT: "Kidnapping for ransom is big business in Pakistan. Estimates vary but it is thought that dozens of people, including children as young as 4 or 5, are abducted every day by criminal gangs, or by Islamic militants to fund their activities. Last year more than 150 people were kidnapped from Peshawar and taken to militant strongholds in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The relative wealth of expatriates means that they are often targeted while travelling from Islamabad airport to villages in Punjab and Kashmir. The security forces have sometimes been in cahoots with the kidnappers, so trust in the police is low and only a few cases are reported."
Read the full story.
Related articles:
Cocaine, kidnapping and the Al-Qaeda cash squeeze, Telegraph, 6 March 2010
Ontario Sikh family fears Pakistani Taliban have kidnapped their son, The Globe and Mail, 5 March 2010
Kidnap globalises as victim profiles broaden, Lloyds, 13 August 2009
Kidnappings spike in Pakistan, The Associated Press via ABC News, 7 June 2009
19 people kidnapped for ransom from Peshawar this month, Daily Times, 28 January 2009
Kidnapping in NWFP and the tribal areas, Pak Institute for Peace Studies, 21 November 2008
Related data:
Anti-kidnapping, Citizens Police Liaison Committee, Pakistan, 2010
Related posts:
Kidnapped Sikh beheaded in Khyber, 22 February 2010
NGO workers kidnapped in Balochistan, 19 February 2010
