Three get jail term in Khalilur Rehman Qamar ‘honey trap’ case

LAHORE: A Lahore court has sentenced three individuals, including a woman, to seven years in jail for luring and kidnapping renowned playwright Khalilur Rehman Qamar for ransom.

The anti-terrorism court acquitted eight other suspects in the same case due to lack of evidence.

ATC Judge Arshad Javed had reserved the verdict last week after wrapping up the trial proceedings. The verdict was announced on Monday in the presence of the accused.

According to the verdict, the court sentenced Aamna Urooj, along with co-accused Mamnoon Haider and Zeeshan Qayyum, to seven years in prison. The remaining accused were acquitted due to insufficient evidence.

The convicts reserve the right to challenge their sentences in the Lahore High Court. Under the law, such appeals are heard by a two-member bench of the Lahore High Court.

The alleged honey trap incident involving Khalilur Rehman Qamar occurred on July 15 last year. The writer claimed he was abducted and physically assaulted.

In an FIR registered on July 21, 2024, at Lahore’s Sundar Police Station, Qamar accused Aamna Urooj and others of kidnapping, blackmailing and robbing him of an iPhone and over Rs250,000 in cash at gunpoint.

The anti-terrorism court had indicted the accused in December last year, but they pleaded not guilty.

During the proceedings, Aamna Urooj and co-accused Yasir approached the Lahore High Court seeking bail.

In January 2025, a two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Alia Neelum rejected Urooj’s bail plea but granted bail to Yasir.

The same bench had also directed the ATC to wrap up the trial within two months.

Khalilur Rehman Qamar recorded his statement as the complainant before the ATC. In addition, the playwright’s friends, police officials, and bank staff gave their testimonies as prosecution witnesses.

What is Honey Trap?

A honey trap refers to a tactic where someone lures a target into a romantic or sexual relationship in order to extract money or information.

In Pakistan, incidents of honey traps are often linked to gangs operating in the riverine areas (kacha areas), where bandits lure people using promises of love or marriage and then rob them after bringing them into their territory.

However, the case involving Khalilur Rehman Qamar being honey trapped in Lahore had raised concerns that such criminal gangs were now expanding their operations into urban areas.

According to police, a gang in Lahore lured the well-known writer into a honey trap, held him hostage, physically assaulted him, and extorted a large sum of money.

Speaking to the BBC Urdu at that time, DIG Lahore Imran Kishwar said that individuals involved in the case belonged to various cities and were operating under the direction of a mastermind named Hassan Shah.

He said that 12 people had been arrested in connection with the case, including three women, while the alleged mastermind was arrested later.

DIG Imran Kishwar said that those arrested had existing criminal records in different cities, involving charges such as murder, land grabbing, robbery, and other crimes.

How Police Caught Suspects?

DSP Faisal Sharif, who led the team that arrested the gang, told BBC Urdu that “the suspects had deleted data and even rebooted Khalilur Rehman Qamar’s mobile phone to erase any record.”

“We managed to recover the phone and were able to retrieve a photo of the woman. We traced her on Facebook and then went to the location where she had called Qamar,” he said.

He said, “We extracted CCTV footage from the location and identified the people involved. Using data, we tracked them down. Once a couple of suspects were arrested, they identified others, leading to multiple raids in different cities. This eventually led to the arrest of the entire group.”

He also shared that when Qamar approached the police, two days had already passed since the incident. Due to the public holidays on the 9th and 10th of Muharram, initial response was delayed. However, the next day, Qamar filed a formal complaint at the police station.

The arrested suspects were found to be from Lahore, Nankana Sahib, Sheikhupura, and Gujranwala, he said.

According to the DSP, all 12 individuals — including Aamna Urooj, the woman who lured Qamar — were apprehended within eight hours of the case being reported.