With Sindh govt concerned over rising crime in Karachi, major reshuffle in police on the cards

The Sindh government has taken notice of rising crime in Karachi, and a major reshuffle in DIG and SSP ranks is expected in the coming days, officials said on Thursday.

At a recent meeting, they said, the provincial government had sought a report from Sindh police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon about the performance of senior police officers and strategies they might have adopted for curbing the menace of crime, especially street crime, since they had been posted at district and range levels for a long time.

Inspector General of Police Memon also sought performance reports of the DIGs, SSPs and SPs as well as their period of posting, and afterwards it would be decided who would stay in their current position and who would be transferred, said the officials.

They said a major reshuffle was expected in the coming days as many of the SSPs and SPs had failed to control crime in their respective districts and divisions despite receiving resources.

According to the officials, when a report on police performance was submitted to the IGP, he refused to go through it and stressed that if the officers deployed were working so efficiently, why then on a daily basis reports of rising crime, including killings of people, were being reported. He ordered his subordinates to adopt effective strategies; otherwise, strict action would be taken against them.

Official sources, sharing details of crime figures of the current year, said more than 50,000 incidents of street crimes had been reported in the city until August 2022. This year, 58 people have lost their lives and 269 suffered injuries for resistance during mugging incidents in the city, 303 cases of burglaries have been reported, more than 19,000 people have been robbed of their mobile phones, and 104 vehicles have been snatched and 1,383 stolen. Thousands of motorcycles have been snatched or stolen in the city until August this year.

In the month of September alone, 11 people have fallen prey to street crime. In Korangi, a cleric was killed for resisting a robbery bid, 17-year-old Talha was shot dead outside his house in Korangi Industrial Area, Zeeshan was killed while sitting in a car with his family in Gulistan Jauhar, and another citizen was killed at a junk shop in Orangi Town. Also, a shopkeeper, Usman, was killed at a milk shop in Model Colony, Muzammil, the owner of a puncture shop, was gunned down at Liaquatabad No. 2, and Tayyab was killed in Liaquatabad No. 4.

Officials and observers said several snatching bids were reported regulary at different locations of the city and some common spots were University Road, Jauhar Morr and Chowrangi, Rashid Minhas Road, Shara-e-Pakistan, Punjab Chowrangi, and several other locations in Central, East, West, South and City districts.

In the past, it was seen that whenever any big robbery was committed in the jurisdiction in any police station of the city, the station house officer (SHO) was suspended and an explanation was sought from the DSP and the SP of the area, and if they continuously failed they got transferred.

Officials said Additional IG Karachi Jawed Alam Odho had adopted the practice of taking immediate action against SHOs who failed to control crime and sought explanations from the divisions DSPs and SPs.

The city police chief stressed that departmental action would be taken if they failed to control crime in their respective areas. The city has also witnessed an upsurge in the easy availability and supply of lethal weapons, which is a major contributory factor in the rise of street crime. The failure to contain the flow of illegal weapons from the upcountry has come under sharp criticism from citizens.

Meanwhile, there is so much scare of street crime in the city, especially among citizens, that some alert messages are also circulating on social media, asking the citizens to be extra careful and cautious at their homes, offices, on roads and in markets. Some messages advise people to refrain from unnecessarily going out particularly at night and not to take isolated routes or empty roads.

Three days ago, a family was beaten up and robbed in the Badar Commercial area, where a lot of robberies are taking place at all working hours of the day, evening and night.