Dramatist Khalilur Rehman says abducted, looted by armed men in Lahore
Dramatist Khalilur Rehman Qamar was allegedly tortured and looted during brief abduction by armed men in Lahore earlier this week, it emerged on Sunday.
A first information report (FIR) of the incident, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, has been registered at the Sundar Police Station in Lahore on his complaint and invokes sections 395 (punishment for dacoity) and 365 (Kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Rehman is quoted in the FIR as saying that close to midnight on Monday (July 15), he received a call from an unknown number.
The caller, who said her name was Amna Urooj, introduced herself as a fan of the writer and wanted to make a TV drama with him, the FIR states.
Upon being invited to a meeting, the writer reached the given location at around 4:40am where the woman showed him into her house, the FIR states, adding that there was a knock on the door as he sat down and around seven armed people entered the room and body-searched him.
Rehman alleged that the men confiscated Rs60,000, an iPhone 11, a Bank Al-Habib ATM card as well as his national identity card.
The FIR added that more than Rs200,000 were also withdrawn from a separate Allied Bank account belonging to the complainant.
The kidnappers, the FIR states, told Rehman that they had being given the orders to kill him, before demanding a ransom payment of Rs10,000,000, to which Rehman told them that he did not have that kind of funds available.
The FIR said that Rehman was then handed over to five other men who took him to an unknown location, where they demanded more money from the writer, upon which he called a friend and asked him to bring Rs1,000,000.
However, Rehman’s friend excused himself, at which the kidnappers assaulted him before leaving him in a deserted place and fleeing themselves.
The dramatist, in the FIR, demanded police action against his abductors, adding that he would be able to recognise them.
A controversial figure, Rehman has written many famous dramas such as Meray Paas Tum Ho and Pyarey Afzal.