Police have registered a case of kidnapping against a Pakistani businessman, owner of a local cola company.
KARACHI: Police in Pakistan’s southeastern Sindh province have registered a case of kidnapping following judicial intervention in the case of a prominent businessman who was abducted from Karachi by armed men four days ago, his lawyer said on Saturday.
Zulfiqar Ahmed, the owner of Next Cola, which has been positioning itself as an alternative to Coca-Cola since October amid a growing boycott of products that it believes fuel Israel’s war in Gaza, was kidnapped after leaving his office in the city on July 23.
Ahmed, who is also managing director of Paracha Textile Mills and Mezan Group, went missing after the white Toyota Surf he was travelling in was intercepted by eight armed men who abducted him and one of his friends, who then escaped.
After Ahmed’s friend shared details of the incident, the businessman’s family and company management filed a complaint at Karli police station the same day. However, when the police refused to accept the complaint, they approached the Sindh High Court, which on Friday ordered the police to file suit.
“news [of Ahmed’s abduction] “Somehow it caught attention on social media,” Mian Ali Ashfaq, a lawyer representing Ahmed’s family, told Arab News. “After the court order and my protest caught attention on social media, a team of colleagues from my office went to the police station and an FIR was filed four hours later. [First Information Report] It was eventually registered and a copy was provided to us by Friday afternoon.”
People widely shared the news of Ahmed’s kidnapping through social media platforms and called on the authorities to take steps towards his release.
Asad Raza, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) for Karachi’s southern district where the incident occurred, denied allegations of police negligence in the case.
“It doesn’t matter whether the FIR was registered immediately or a day later,” he told Arab News. “We started working on the case from the time the kidnapping took place.”
Lawyer Ashfaq, representing Ahmed’s family, said the high court had issued notices to the accused and fixed the hearing for Tuesday.
“We hope that Zulfikar Ahmed will recover by the time of the next hearing and be reunited with his family,” he added.
Karachi Police Chief Javed Alam Od said on Friday that two “high-powered” teams were investigating the incident.
“A strong team under the supervision of the CIA DIG [Crime Investigation Agency] “Another police force under the DIG in the area is working on the matter,” he told Arab News. “I am confident that the case will be resolved soon.”
But lawyers representing Ahmed’s family said the case was further complicated by the fact that two senior NextCola staff members had also been detained from Lahore and Kasur the previous day after Friday’s verdict.
He added that he plans to file a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking compensation for them.
“Meezan Beverages’ assistant director for finances, Hassan Nawaz, was taken away in Lahore while Meezan Beverages’ general manager, Daniel Afzal Khan, was abducted in Kasur by armed men in a white double-cabin car,” he said.
Next Cola, launched in 2016, struggled to gain traction until Israel’s war with Pakistan began last October, leaving more than 39,000 people dead, mostly women and children. But since then, it has become more visible in supermarkets and wedding halls across Pakistan.
