Car theft don who wants to expose all but fears for his life

Updated at: 0816 PST, Monday, July 25, 2011
Car theft don who wants to expose all but fears for his life

Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: An underworld don, involved in the multi-billion car theft trade in the country, has volunteered to name and expose the powerful mafia players who, according to him, include several police officials, Excise Department personnel, private businessmen and some political figures. But the don fears for his life for which he is seeking protection.

Muhammad Hasan, alias Major Muhammad Hasan, against whom there are more than 100 cases of car theft registered in different police stations of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and different cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, however, does not trust anyone but Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to make disclosures, which he insists would be vital to launch a decisive crackdown against the mafia.

He also assured that if he was attached with a team of honest and upright police officers by the chief justice, he would help the authorities recover hundreds of stolen vehicles freely plying on the roads of Pakistan.

"If I make the disclosure without protecting myself and my family, I would be either killed by the police in a fake encounter or would become the victim of other influential players of the mafia," he said while conveying the information to The News through a source from Jamrud Jail in Khyber Agency where he is presently locked up.

The jail authorities, when contacted, confirmed Hasan was in their custody but did not know his criminal background. A jail official said Hasan was handed over to them by the Bara police. However, Hasan said he was a missing person for one year after he was taken into illegal custody by the Hayatabad police and had been recovered only after his family approached the Peshawar High Court.

He volunteers to disclose everything before the chief justice in return to his and his family's protection from the mafia, whom he termed as "too powerful and too dangerous".

He has a long list of police officials in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Mardan, Peshawar, Charsadda, etc, who, he alleged, have been or are hand in glove with the car lifters mafia, but he is not prepared to uncover them at this stage. He also knows how and where the vehicles are disassembled or tampered. He is also prepared to unveil the top buyers of stolen vehicles and their safe havens.

Hasan was reluctant to disclose the names of the mafia to The News, but assured that he would name each and every player once he was called by the chief justice. When probed, he said the mafia players included senior police officials and other well-connected people. "Disclosing their names at this stage would mean my death," he said and hoped that the court would protect him and accept him as an approver to eliminate the car-lifting mafia.

Hasan's criminal record is confirmed by the in-charge inspector of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell, Islamabad, Abdul Majeed, who confirmed that he was one of the leading car thieves of the country. Abdul Majeed said Hasan's area of operation was the Punjab, Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He disclosed that initially he was based in Rawalpindi, but later moved to Mardan.

Majeed revealed that in 2006, Hasan was caught by the police and admitted to have stolen 190 vehicles, a large number of which were recovered. Majeed apprehended that Hasan had already been killed in a police encounter but insisted that these were unconfirmed reports.

Hasan, besides approaching The News, has already sent his appeal to the chief justice, interior minister, chief ministers of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and IGPs of the two provinces.

He said he got into this illegal business after he was wrongly implicated by police in a car theft case and was sent to jail where he developed acquaintance with criminal elements, including the car mafia. Hasan said he was recognised as one of the top dons of car-lifting groups in Pakistan and claimed to have been paying two to four million rupees a month to police officials.

"I am regarded as a don in this particular brand of underworld mafia. I have escaped several times from police custody, face more than hundred cases, earned a lot of money, toured several foreign countries but now want to expose everyone in this business because I do not want to continue with this life full of sins," he said, adding by volunteering to help the state to get rid of the car-lifting mafia, he wanted to undo his wrongs and would like to help the people get back their stolen vehicles.

In the recent years, car-lifting cases saw a phenomenal increase and more than 60,000 vehicles were stolen only in 2009 while this number is feared to have increased in 2010. The car-lifting illicit business involves tens of billions of rupees and, according to Hasan, there are parties, which can pay advance money to car lifters and their dons like Hasan for to be stolen vehicles.

He said that without the connivance of the police, the mafia simply cannot operate. He said that despite all precautionary measures taken by the car owners, a car lifter could steal any vehicle within a few minutes. The most reliable anti-car lifting system is the tracker system, which he said is disabled with jammers costing only Rs6,000. He said he had been mostly interested in Land Cruisers, Prados, Lexus, and other luxurious vehicles and claimed that most of the these vehicles stolen from Islamabad was his work.

About the change of his mind, he said that he recently read the Holy Quran, which had transformed him. He said he wanted to leave the underworld, but the mafia would not let him do that. He said he belonged to a respectable family of Rawalpindi, but had been pushed into this evil life by the police.

According to Hasan, the mafia is extremely powerful and well organised. Seeking protection for himself and for his family from no less than the chief justice, he reminded that one of his jail friends, Imran Goga, had approached Chief Justice Chaudhry in 2005 against Adiala Jail official corruption and misuse of power. The chief justice took action and ordered a probe, but later Goga was ruthlessly beaten besides having being attacked with a sharp knife through his fellow jail inmates to teach him a lesson for approaching the chief jusitce. Goga, according to Hasan, received multiple cuts on his body.

The News confirmed from the newspaper archives the fact that Chief Justice Iftikhar had ordered the Punjab Prisons IG Sarfraz Mufti to submit a detailed report within two weeks on allegations made by Goga, then an under trial prisoner. The newspaper reports said on that occasion Justice Iftikhar had also ordered the IG Prisons to inform the Supreme Court as to why officials of the Punjab Prisons were not transferred even after serving at one prison for 15-16 years whereas, according to the law, prison officials should be transferred every three years.