On Oct. 13, at least six men kidnapped 16-year-old Saleh Hamdan in the city of Zarqa, 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Amman, where they allegedly tortured him before amputating his hands and gouging out one of his eyes. The leader of the men allegedly sent the boy’s amputated hands to Hamdan’s mother. When Hamdan was found, he was carried to a hospital and admitted to intensive care.

The horrific assault and maiming of Hamdan has shocked Jordanian society, triggering a storm of denunciations on social media and calls on authorities to take action. It took the government a few days to react as public pressure mounted, and on Oct. 17, newly appointed Minister of Interior Tawfiq Halalmeh announced that a joint security team consisting of members of the Public Security Department (PSD) and the Gendarmerie Department would launch a campaign to arrest all wanted people and suspects of protection racketeers. He called on the public to share information on suspects with the PSD. Meanwhile, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Bisher al-Khasawneh assured Halalmeh of the government’s full support for all law enforcement efforts in ensuring the rule of law.

The incident underlined the spread of the phenomenon of racketeering and bullying, especially in impoverished areas of east Amman and Zarqa. On Oct. 18, the joint force launched a major hunt for suspected racketeers, bullies and repeat offenders. By the first day of the crackdown, at least 100 suspects had been arrested and placed in administrative detention without bail. Many are said to have been convicted of previous crimes. Most had been released under a royal pardon issued last year.

On Oct. 14, King Abdullah II ordered that Hamdan be transferred to a military hospital for treatment. On Oct. 19, authorities announced they had arrested over a dozen people in Hamdan's case. According to police sources, the attack on Hamdan was an act of revenge for an altercation between the boy’s father, who is a mosque imam, and a racketeer in Zarqa two months ago. The quarrel ended in the fatal wounding of the racketeer and the arrest of the imam.