Obstructing carjackers: Checkpoints being relocated

The police have decided to beef up security at the city’s exit points.

ISLAMABAD: In a fresh strategy to check the surging rate of carjacking in the city, the police have decided to relocate barricaded checkpoints with their highest concentration at exit points. For some time now, not a day goes by without at least three to four car thefts in the city.

The police have decided to relocate at least forty of the total 93 existing checkpoints in the city. In the first phase, 17 checkpoints will be removed from the entry points and fixed at various exit points of the city. The remaining would be relocated within due time on the basis of the
city’s crime rate.

The police officers agreed that insufficient scrutiny at the exit points of the city was one of the main reasons the carjackers had a free play ground to operate in. The police also plan to plug the IJ Principle Road, the route most often used by carjackers for driving the stolen vehicles out of the city. The senior superintendent directed the police to dig up the area around IJP road so that the carjackers would not be able to avoid the newly established checkpoints.

All superintendents were asked to personally supervise patrolling in their respective areas, with additional directions that the minimum number of patrols in an area must not be less than six for a night.

Earlier, the police used multiple techniques to check increasing car theft in the city. Police in private vehicles were deputed for patrolling in Saddar area, the most affected by car theft. However, none of their tactics worked out in their favour.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2011.