Six-month review: Pindi police fail to curb street crimes

First six months of 2011 worse than 2010.

RAWALPINDI:

Incidents of crime in Rawalpindi witnessed an increase during last six months, despite the shuffling of police officials in response to the rise in the number of cases.

Overall, 2300 crime cases were reported during last six months, up from 2010. Statistics obtained from police sources revealed that 172 murder cases, 280 attempted murder cases, 64 fatal incidents, 73 minor accidents, five kidnappings for ransom and 11 abduction cases and 26 rape cases were reported in Rawalpindi in 2011 between January and June.

Resident of Rawalpindi lost millions of rupees in cash and valuables because of armed robbery, theft and burglary, snatching, with a total of 9470 cases reported; 693 vehicles and 490 motorcycles were stolen - the figure includes 52 vehicles and 21 motorcycles that were snatched at gunpoint. The recovery of these vehicles and motorcycles remained slow.

36 armed robberies and theft cases, 253 cases of snatching at gunpoint were registered in different police stations. Beside this, 313 cases of house burglaries were reported and 34 cases of livestock being stolen were registered. Several cases of fraud and cheque dishonour were also registered this year.

Several such incidents in the area went unreported as well. City Police Officer Rawalpindi Azhar Hameed Khokar told The Express Tribune that they had adopted “several steps” to eliminate crimes and the incidents of car and motorcycles thefts had fallen “considerably” this month.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2011.