Crime rose in Pindi last month

23 murders were reported in the city in January.

RAWALPINDI: Incidents of crime in Rawalpindi witnessed an increase in January 2011, despite the shuffling of police officials in response to the rise in cases.

Overall, 1295 crime cases were reported in the first month of this year.

Statistics obtained from police sources revealed that 23 murder cases, 38 attempted murder cases, 46 incidents of violent fights, 12 fatal accidents, 2 kidnappings for ransom and 19 kidnapping cases were reported.

People lost millions of rupees in cash and valuables because of armed robbery, theft and burglary, with a total of.350 cases reported. Meanwhile, 102 vehicles and 69 motorcycles were stolen, while recovery of these was slow.

Police sources said that the jump in crime cases could be attributed to vacant seats of senior police officials in the city.

Armed robbery and theft cases were 61, while car theft saw 82 reported incidents. Stolen motorcycle count stood at 69, house burglary 59, livestock theft 7 and petty theft 75. Fraud and cheque dishonour cases were 129.

Several such incidents in the area went unreported as well.

Regional Police Officer Rawalpindi Hamid Mukhtar Gondol had earlier shuffled all SHOs of the city in response to the rise in crime but no significant improvement has been seen so far.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2011.