MUZAFFARGARH: Police have arrested a digital fraud gang involved in embezzling funds from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) at the Chowk Azam centre. Layyah police took action against the network and arrested four suspects—Zaheer, Aqib, Wasim, and Yamin.

According to police, the suspects were using private bank devices and other digital tools to fraudulently deduct money from beneficiaries - poor and deserving women. The gang had been operating at the BISP centre located at Chowk Azam Boys Degree College, where they manipulated transactions to siphon off funds meant for beneficiaries.

One of the victims, Nazeeran Mai, reported that one of the suspects, Aqib, deducted Rs3,000 from her payment by altering the device’s location. Instead of processing transactions at the designated government college centre, the gang changed locations digitally to avoid detection by the police.

The police were able to detect the fraud when they checked the device’s altered location settings.

Several other women also approached the police and lodged complaints about similar unauthorised deductions. Acting on these complaints, a case was registered on the complaint of BISP Assistant Director Asif Zaman at Chowk Azam police station.

For the past few days, police have been conducting a crackdown on fraudsters exploiting BISP beneficiaries. Layyah District Police Officer Muhammad Ali Waseem said strict action would be taken against those involved in cheating innocent citizens. He assured that no leniency would be shown to fraudsters using digital means to exploit the underprivileged.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2025