PPP leader's house attacked in Nowshera after 'extortion letters from TTP'

• Alsam received phone calls from Afghanistan, Pakistan numbers.
• CCTV footage shows man hurling grenade into house, fleeing.
• CTD registers case, starts an investigation of attack on Wednesday.

NOWSHERA: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Pir Muhammad Aslam's house in Nowshera district's Risalpur was partially damaged after a hand grenade was thrown into the male guesthouse by an alleged militant of a proscribed outfit, The News reported Friday, citing police.

While registering 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 had demanded Rs10 million in extortion, threatening him with dire consequences if the money was not paid.

The complainant said that later he also received phone calls from the numbers of neighbouring country Afghanistan to arrange the money or face "dire consequences".

Aslam also claimed that the militants later made phone calls from Pakistani numbers on July 21 and 26, threatening him that his entire family would be eliminated if the said amount of extortion money was not delivered immediately. 

He said the militants hurled a hand grenade at his house on Wednesday night after he could not arrange the money. As a result, the house and the adjacent hujra were partially damaged. 

However, Aslam and his family members remained unharmed in the subversive act.

The CTD registered a case and started an investigation.

The CTD later released footage of a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera in which a man could be seen hurling the grenade into the house and then fleeing. 

Aslam is the PPP’s provincial leader and had contested elections twice on the party ticket, but he could not make it to Assembly.

This is not the first time reports of extortion from TTP have surfaced. In October last year, senior Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister Atif Khan allegedly received a letter from the proscribed outfit demanding Rs8 million as extortion.

The TTP is not only notorious for extorting people, but it has also upped its attacks against the military since last year in November when it had ended the ceasefire with Pakistan.