Turkish police on Tuesday shared footage from a hostage rescue operation in Istanbul after a gang of Pakistani nationals was apprehended. The six suspects have been arrested on charges of abduction of four Nepalese nationals.
The victims were walking in the city’s Taksim Square last week when the suspects approached them and brandished guns, motioning for the victims to come with them. They were taken to a house in city’s Eyüpsultan district where they are tortured for three days.
Police raided the house where they were held, saving the victims and arresting all the suspects. Knives and pistols used in abduction were seized. The victims, visibly shaken by the ordeal, barely moved when the police officers untied the group huddled in a corner of a room.
Police sources said the suspects filmed the torture and sent it to N.C., a friend of the victims and a member of a local Nepalese association based in Istanbul, asking for 10,000 euros ($10,674) in ransom. When N.C. alerted the authorities, the police launched an operation and asked her to arrange a meeting with the kidnappers to pay the ransom. Two Pakistani men, identified as Ali H. And Muhammad S., who arrived to pick up the ransom, were arrested, along with Asma M., a Pakistani woman who acted as the “lookout.” After determining where the victims were being kept, police raided a half-empty house, rounding up the rest of the gang who were holding guns to the hostages' heads as they were captured.
The suspects, aged between 16 and 35, were charged with robbery, abduction, deliberate injury and violation of the firearms law.
Last year, another group of Pakistani criminals were captured when they abducted a compatriot in Istanbul and asked for a 50,000 euro ransom for his release.
