As someone hailing from Peshawar, I am deeply concerned with the ever-increasing cases of kidnappings. It was quite reassuring to know from papers that an operation has resumed against kidnappers. A report in a national newspaper said that the city police had recovered two abductees for whom the kidnapper Hashim had demanded Rs 20 millions in ransom. According to this report, the police had also razed the kidnapper's house in Khazana and were about to resume the operation when it was suspended on orders from the high-ups. High-ups, who? Some time back a senior police official confided in me that the SIM of a mobile phone recovered from a kidnapper showed that about 20 - yes sir - 20 calls had been made from it to an ex-minister of the NWFP in a matter of two days when the negotiations for ransom money were being conducted for the release of a wealthy kidnapped person. Hope the 'high-ups' in the present case are not of the same category.-COL (Retd) RIAZ JAFRI, Rawalpindi, via e-mail, January 27.