Two foreign women detail multi-day ordeal of alleged kidnapping, extortion, assault during Pakistan visit

LAHORE: In a testimony recorded before a judicial magistrate at cantonment courts, two foreign women detailed a multi-day ordeal involving their alleged kidnapping, million-dollar extortion, physical assault and sexual abuse, it emerged on Saturday.

The two foreigners recorded their statements on Thursday, the same day police booked five suspects over alleged abduction and sexual assault after the two women were rescued. Four of the suspects, including a close relative of a senior political personality, were arrested and later sent on a five-day physical remand.

The complainant-victim, a citizen of the Netherlands, provided her voluntary statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) following an investigation registered under a first information report (FIR) filed at the Defence C Police Station.

The charges include severe offences under sections 375-A (rape) and 365-A (kidnapping for extortion) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

According to the victim’s sworn statement, she and her friend, who is a Venezuelan citizen, arrived in Pakistan on June 26, 2026 at the invitation of a local business partner whom they said they had originally met in Singapore in October 2025.

The primary suspect, who claimed to be well-connected to influential government figures, arranged their visas under the guise of setting up meetings with high-profile investors for the victim’s company, the Dutch woman said.

After spending three days at a hotel in Islamabad — during which they made sightseeing trips to Nathia Gali and attended business presentations — the group travelled to Lahore by car on the afternoon of June 29.

The suspect allegedly lured the victim and her companion to a modern house in Lahore under the pretext of celebrating a relative’s birthday. However, upon entering the residence, they found it empty.

Within 15 minutes, four men armed with firearms and ropes stormed the premises. The captors immediately tied the victims’ hands behind their backs and subjected both women to physical assault, the complainant alleged.

While the primary suspect initially acted as a fellow victim to mask his complicity, it later became evident he was working in tandem with the armed group, she further claimed.

She alleged that the captors demanded exorbitant ransom amounts, starting at $2 million, threatening to kill the women and sell their organs if they did not comply.

The victims were separated, the complainant said, recalling she was held downstairs under armed guard while her companion was kept upstairs.

During the night, she said, the prime suspect and an accomplice referred to as “the boss” forcibly took the victim’s phone and electronically transferred $17,000 in cryptocurrency from her accounts.

The woman said she was repeatedly coerced into sending frantic voice notes to her family and friends begging for money.

However, she managed to slip a pre-established distress code word—“CARLITOS”— into her messages, prompting her family in Europe to immediately alert international and local law enforcement authorities.

On June 30, she said, an armed assailant dressed in a black local suit sexually assaulted her in the bedroom.

On July 1, the key suspect drove the women away, claiming he was taking them to the airport, she said.

However, tracking the route on a hidden mobile phone, the Dutch woman said she realised he was deliberately lying and stalling, driving slowly while communicating suspiciously with “the boss”.

Fearing they were being driven to another secondary location, the women began screaming for him to stop. Seizing a moment of chaos when their vehicle slightly collided with a car ahead, the women jumped out of the moving vehicle and ran screaming into a nearby mechanic’s shop for safety.

A local traffic police officer spotted the women and immediately summoned emergency backup, the Netherlands citizen said.

Suffering from severe trauma, the women initially panicked and fled the first police response vehicle out of fear.

However, senior police officials arrived shortly after alongside a female officer, successfully calming the victims and presenting evidence that law enforcement had actively been tracking their kidnapping case for the past 48 hours.

The victims were safely escorted to the police station, where their official statements were secured.

Following the victim’s explicit confirmation that she gave her statement voluntarily and without outside coercion, the magistrate formally sealed the testimony to proceed with aggressive legal action against the perpetrators.

The other victim woman, a citizen of Venezuela, also recorded a separate testimony, which was similar to the Dutch woman’s and endorsed her version. ...