TIMERGARA, Oct 21: The Lower Dir families affected by Mudaraba financial scam on Monday demanded of the government to help them recover the looted money.

Members of these families, including retired government employees, told Dawn here that they`d handed over millions of rupees to agents of a company for interest-free trading and most of them were reputable and noble people.

They said the agents told them that the money would be invested in interest-free business managed by noted re-ligious scholars and muftis in Malaysia and other parts of world and therefore, they put around Rs7 billion in the business.

The protesters said they got monthly profit up to Rs25,000 for sometime but the provision of profit had been suspended for six months.

They said owners of the company had fled the country.

The protesters said they had lost their hard-earned money and had been pushed from pillar to post for its recovery.

They said they first kept silence asthey didn`t want to defame religious scholars and muftis but in desperation, they had step out to demand their plundered money.

The protesters said there were many, who deposited their pensions to fraudsters, while some local women had even sold gold ornaments to invest money in Mudaraba trading.

They said they had been looted by fraudsters, who disguised themselves as pious people.

The protesters demanded of the government to recover their money and punish culprits.