One afternoon, a stranger in Muhammad Faizanullah stationery shop in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital, without a word handed the man behind the counter two items: a piece of paper, scribbled on a phone number, and a bullet.
,: "Faizanullah, 20, said," the letter contained a demand 200,000 Pakistani rupees (U.S. $ 2,000). "The man said:" Just dial this number, amount paid, otherwise the bullet is what you mean. "
Companies are facing in Karachi a surge in demand for criminal gangs, extortion, forced many owners to postpone new investments or relocating their families to get rid of the feeling of insecurity to seize Pakistan's economic center of the city.
In Karachi, Pakistan, 25 percent of economic activity, deteriorating law and order situation and the new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif presented many challenges that must be overcome to fulfill commitments on a path of rapid growth in Pakistan.
Promote the growing middle class consumer spending, but blackmail hurt thousands of family-run company's confidence, forming a backbone of the economy.
With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in July, the traditional time to call extortion, Karachi traders and shopkeepers, police said, will be a record year for demand to support.
"Extortion racket blown out, said:" All the proportion of last year, Ahmed Chinoy Chief Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), Karachi organization formed to help police crime statistics and technical support.
Growing demand, reflecting the new challenges, including the Pakistani Taliban movement more and more violent, neighborhood neighborhood battle for control, are locked in a city of 18 million people in the dynamic changes.
Chinhoyi collected by the Commission figures show that more than 630 complaints registered extortion Karachi from January to mid-June, compared with 589 last year. In most cases, the registrant refuse to pay.
Police said the actual number of events many times higher, because the vast majority of the victims of extortion often go unreported and decided to pay. There is no way to know the amount involved, but police said the payment run into millions of dollars every year, 2013 will be a record year.
Extortion payment within ten days after his visit to the shop in the bustling Faizanullah Aramaic cloth market in December, two men on a motorcycle stopped him, his father and uncle, as they drove home from work.
One of the men in his waistband, gun shows, telling Faizanullah: "You people do not seem to understand our courteous manner, we will have to shoot you." They demanded man with cell phone and whistling away.
"We live under constant stress," Faizanullah said. But he insisted that his family refused to hand over any cash.
Professionals, not just the owner, but also targets.
Dr. Javed Hanif, answering his cell phone caller stumbled in June a list of Hanif's profile: his work in government hospitals, the registration number of his car, and preparing for his son's wedding. The man requires 500,000 Pakistan rupees.
Grenade
Karachi businessman said, had to pay extortion as part of cost of doing business in Karachi.
Police said the mob Muttahida National Movement (MQM), the dominant political party in Karachi, working in the city is the largest extortion threat.
Police also with other political parties to extortion,, MQM and other parties in Karachi has repeatedly denied any involvement.
In the past year, the competition rules of the game have changed political parties, militant groups and criminal entrepreneurs, keen to challenge the grip of Karachi, MQM has expanded their extortion rackets funds increasingly deadly turf wars, police officials said.
Killed in Karachi last year from 1700 to 2012 the number jumped to more than 2,300. Since the beginning of this year, more than 1,400 murders have been recorded. The increase in the number of deaths makes it easier to force people to pay gangs, although there have been few reports of extortion murder.
"Extortion racket in Karachi has become an industry, said:": senior police officer Niaz Ahmed Khosa. "There are about 50 does not go in Karachi, the police can not enter the field. Extortion racket and other crimes are being generated from the pockets of these people."
Police blame Duo Lesuo increase a criminal gang known as the People's Aman Committee (PAC), located in the Lyari district, the police did not go to regions, and which they say is to expand to new cities. The gang, police said, and the ruling Pakistan People's Party of Pakistan until its defeat in the May elections.
"If some political parties said they did not participate in extortion rackets, they are lying," said the former president Majyad Aziz Balagamwala Karachi Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
Police said that in Karachi, Pakistan Taliban movement, which originated in the North West Frontier and Afghanistan, but also ramped up extortion operation in the past year, has been blamed for the attack has killed dozens of police deaths.
Despite the climate of fear, business sentiment generally bleak. Retail flourish in Karachi, symbolizing the flashy modern shopping mall called dolmen Clifton in 2011 demonstrated the well-known international brands such as Debenhams and Fatburger opening.
But no one from the extortion calls.
Byram D. Avari, a prominent hotel chain, in Karachi the owner of a well-known figure, refused to pay the caller who threatened to set off a grenade in his hotel and family needs. But many others did not dare to say "no."
 



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