A campaign of high-profile kidnappings has provided the Pakistani Taliban and its allies with new resources, arming insurgents with millions of dollars, threatening foreign aid programs and galvanising a sophisticated network of jihadi and criminal gangs whose reach spans the country.
Wealthy industrialists, academics, Western aid workers and relatives of military officers have been targets in a spree that, since it started three years ago, has spread to every major city, reaching the wealthiest neighbourhoods, Pakistani security officials say. For many hostages, the experience means a harrowing journey into the heart of Waziristan, the fearsome Taliban redoubt along the Afghan border that has borne the brunt of a CIA drone-strike campaign.
Kidnapping is a centuries-old scourge in parts of Pakistan. What has changed, however, is the level of Taliban involvement.
The business is run like a mobster racket. Pakistani and foreign militant commanders based in Waziristan give the orders, but it is a combination of hired criminals and ''Punjabi Taliban'' who snatch the hostages from their homes, vehicles and workplaces.
Ransom demands typically range between $US500,000 ($464,000) and $US2.2 million, although the final price is often one-tenth of the asking amount, security experts say.
The kidnappers' methods are sophisticated: surveillance of targets that can last months; use of different gangs for different tasks, often with little knowledge of one another.
The victims tend to be wealthy and, often, from vulnerable sectarian minorities such as Hindus, Shiites and Ahmadi Muslims.
The Taliban's extended range is most striking in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, where it has allied with criminal gangs to mount daring abductions, often in broad daylight.