KARACHI: While the Karachi police have always stressed that street crime incidents are under control, it seems like hardly a day passes in the city without dozens of such incidents taking place, many of which claim the lives of innocent people.
A look at the crime statistics released by the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) shows that more than 50,000 criminal incidents have been reported in Karachi between January and August this year. These are just the incidents that have been reported. There might be countless others that have not been reported.
The figure shows that on an average, 208 criminal cases are reported on a daily basis in the city, with the snatching and stealing of mobile phones, cars and motorbikes being the most common. The financial impact of these incidents is estimated to be in millions of rupees.
Not only have people been deprived of their valuable possessions in these cases but some 90 people have also lost their lives at the hands of the street criminals responsible.Among the deceased are officers of the intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and women. Nearly 500 others have also been wounded due to the gunshots fired by the robbers.
According to the figures, around 11 people have lost their lives and more than 60 others have been injured every month of this year in street crime incidents in the city.Neither have the families of the deceased been compensated nor have the wounded been provided proper medical treatment or support. All of them have been abandoned without any assistance or help.
Moreover, when people’s valuables are stolen, there is often no follow-up or recovery. The rate of recovery in such cases is almost negligible. Police tend to focus only on the encounters they have engaged in to demonstrate their performance, but not a day passes without incidents of loot or theft.
Similarly, not a day passes without criminals being killed or wounded in police encounters, which are now referred to as “half fry” or “full fry” operations. Instead of eliminating street crime incidents, police focus solely on these encounters.
If we look at the weekly police performance reports, they primarily focus on statistics related to encounters with criminals. According to the recent weekly report, police conducted 18 encounters in a week, resulting in a suspect being killed and 32 others being injured. Additionally, 776 suspects were arrested during the week.
The report mentions recoveries from suspects, but these typically include drugs and weapons. There is no mention of the recovery of stolen valuables or compensation for those affected.This indicates that while the police emphasise their success in encounters and arrests, the recovery of stolen property and addressing the victims’ losses remain largely ignored.
Karachi reported almost 6,000 criminal incidents in August alone, with majority of them being cases of snatching and theft. The CPLC report states that 5,951 incidents of snatching and stealing mobile phones, motorbikes and other vehicles were reported in the city last month.
According to the report, 150 cars were stolen and 23 others were snatched at gunpoint. Moreover, 656 motorbikes were snatched and 3,385 others were stolen. Robbers also snatched 1,737 mobile phones from people last month. The report also mentioned three cases of kidnapping for ransom and six cases of extortion that took place during August.
According to earlier reports, Karachi saw more than 44,000 criminal incidents during the first seven months of 2024. This includes more than 31,000 motorbike theft and snatching incidents, over 1,000 cases car theft and snatching, 12 cases of kidnapping for ransom and 57 cases of extortion.Notably, eight people were killed in August alone, bringing the total number of fatalities from January to August to 90. Additionally, around 500 people were wounded during these eight months.