GUJRAT: A known businessman and local PML-N leader has claimed that a banned outfit has been demanding a sum of Rs100 million from him as extortion money.

Haji Aurangzaib Butt, a local leader of the PML-N and a businessman, told Dawn over telephone that he had initially received a message to pay the extortion money and later received a letter (on the letterhead of the banned outfit), as well as threatening phone calls from a number with the dialing code of a neighbouring country.

He said the caller, a man speaking Urdu language in Pakhtun accent, demanded Rs100m from him and threatened to kill or kidnap his son if he failed to pay the extortion money. He claimed he brought the matter into the notice of the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and beefed up his security.

However, a spokesman for Gujrat police said Mr Butt did not lodged any written complaint so far for the registration of a case.

Official sources say that before Mr Butt, a religious figure in the district belonging to a sectarian organisation, had also received such a threatening letter and call by the banned outfit and was asked to pay extortion money.

They said the LEAs and intelligence agencies have launched probes into the matter.

The sources say a close relative of a former PTI lawmaker from Hafizabad district had also received such threats last week, allegedly by the same banned outfit.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2023