CPLC and other relevant bodies should make stringent efforts to curb the crime rate
KARACHI: According to press reports, street crimes like mobile phone snatching and vehicle theft increased during the past year compared to 2016 in Karachi. Although the overall law and order situation might have improved in relation to a decrease in targeted killings, bomb blasts and suicide attacks due to operations against a political party in 2013, the citizens were not any safer on important roadways and streets.
However, Rangers or army personnel cannot be held responsible for a rise in street crimes as the responsible body for the aforementioned is the police and primarily the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC). It is pertinent to note that alongside the need for measures to control theft and snatching, communities need to be made safer and secure too given the fact that in Karachi many incidents of murder had communal connotations attached to them. Also in other districts and regions of Sindh crimes like honour killing, underage marriage and incidents of sectarian nature were a common occurrence. Besides, many initiatives by the Sindh government, for instance, to install trackers in motor vehicles and an increase in installation of CCTV cameras didn’t bear the desired results either.
Further, decrease in terrorist incidents might possibly be the case in the metropolis only, as for the interior of the province and northwestern regions of the country, the situation has not taken a turn for the better. As a result, the CPLC and other relevant bodies should make stringent efforts to curb the crime rate.
Irfan Hameed
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2018.
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