The Pakistani Taliban has reportedly asked two local businessmen to pay 'protection money' to help militants carry out 'jihad'.
A senior police official told Dawn News that the chief executive of an Islamabad-based business establishment had received four letters allegedly from the head of the banned organization Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) 'finance wing'.
The businessman has been asked to pay 25 million dollars. The letter, bearing the name of its sender, said the money was needed for jihad and it would be received abroad (in Dubai).
According to the report, the TTP threatened that its 'operational wing' would come into action if the money was not paid.
Police said a man delivered a letter and a Universal Serial Bus or USB (a data storage device) at the office of Raja Hanif, who is the father-in-law of Sadaqat Abbasi, who contested the recent general elections as a candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf from Murree.
Hanif said in a statement recorded by the police that the letter had been written on the TTP's letterhead.
