Nowshera: The house of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Pir Muhammad Aslam in Risalpur of Nowshera district was partially damaged when an alleged militant of a banned outfit hurled a grenade at the male guest house, JEE News reported. Reported to the police on Friday.
Filing a report at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) police station, Aslam said that he had received an extortion letter from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on July 1 last.
According to Aslam, the TTP militants demanded Rs 10 million as ransom, and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not pay the amount.
The complainant said that later he also received phone calls from numbers in neighboring Afghanistan asking him to arrange the money or face “serious consequences”.
Aslam also claimed that the militants later made phone calls from Pakistani numbers on July 21 and 26 and threatened to exterminate his entire family if the said ransom was not paid immediately. .
He said the militants hurled a grenade at his house on Wednesday night when he could not arrange the money. As a result, the house and adjoining room were partially damaged.
However, Aslam and his family members were spared in the sabotage operation.
CTD registered a case and started investigation.
The CTD later released footage from a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera in which a man can be seen throwing a grenade into the house and then fleeing.
Aslam is the provincial leader of the People’s Party and has contested elections twice on the party’s ticket, but he could not make it to the assembly.
This is not the first time that news of extortion from TTP has surfaced. In October last year, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa senior minister Atif Khan allegedly received a letter from the banned outfit demanding an extortion of Rs 80 lakh.
Not only is the TTP notorious for extorting money from people, it has also increased its attacks on the army since ending a ceasefire with Pakistan in November last year.
