Crime continues to spiral out of control in Islamabad

Surveillance cameras, patrolling, pickets and deployment of more personnel prove futile

ISLAMABAD:

Despite claims from officials and addition in manpower, the crime rate in the federal capital continued to rise in the city during the outgoing year with at least 100 people murdered in the city, including the high profile murder of an army officer in a park of the city.

The government had spent Rs13 billion on the Safe City Project, laying a web of surveillance cameras throughout the city. It even raised a new patrolling force including the Eagle Squad and the bike-mounted Falcon Squad, but it did little to curb crime.

The police force even tried a massive shakeup, transferring and postings around 500 police officials, from inspector general to constables, but to little avail. Similarly, the erection of over 150 police pickets, and around the clock patrolling by police and Rangers had proved futile.

Crime statistics for the past year showed that as many as 9,000 cases of crimes of varying nature were registered at the 22 police stations in the city. This was 1,500 more than the 7,500 cases registered in 2018.

At least 100 people were murdered in the capital during 2019. This was only slightly down from 106 incidents in 2018. More than 300 attempt-to-murder cases were registered by police in the outgoing year against just 142 in 2018.

Police also registered over 2,600 cases of robberies, mugging, and vehicle theft in Islamabad during 2019 as compared with 2,140 such incidents in 2018.

Islamabad Police’s crime records showed that some 800 vehicles were either stolen or snatched from residents of the capital city during the outgoing year. This included as many as 400 cars and an equal number of motorbikes. By comparison, robbers took away 225 cars and 426 motorbikes in 2018.

To hide its incompetence, the police impounded some 100 tampered cars and 80 motorbikes and claimed recoveries in the record book.

Apart from these crimes, the police failed to curb kidnapping of women with as many as 500 cases. There were also cases of children being raped and killed.

In 2018, capital police had registered 357 cases of kidnapping and molestation.

The only sector where the federal police displayed considerable improvement in performance was apprehending those smuggling drugs and liquor.

However, the police confined its focus only to slum areas where it actively took action against home-based liquor factories instead of targeting bootleggers who have made a business out of supplying smuggled foreign liquor.

During 2019, police registered more than 1,500 cases of recovering moonshine and arresting various suspects. Though, none of them was linked to any major liquor racket.

In 2018, only 950 cases of illegal liquor were registered but most of them were against people supplying imported brands rather than poor people making moonshine in shantytowns.

The year claimed some 200 lives in accidents due to speeding or reckless driving. In 400 accidents, at least 200 victims suffered grievous bodily injuries. The Islamabad Police also arrested some 40 aliens during the year. Most of these were Afghan nationals. This was down from last year when 60 were arrested.

The Express Tribune tried to contact Inspector General (IG) Islamabad Police Aamir Zulfiqar Khan but he could not be reached.

However, a spokesperson for the Islamabad Police on Tuesday claimed that the police force had helped reduce crime significantly in 2019, as compared to the previous year.

He said that the number of murder cases fell by 13 per cent in 2019 as compared to the previous year while cases of kidnapping for ransom, robbery, snatching items and burglary decreased by 50 per cent.

At least 19 blind murder cases were traced and 37 accused involved in these cases were arrested, he said.

In 2019, Islamabad Police provided security to 4,615 national and foreign VVIPs and VIPs which mainly included the visit of Saudi Crown Prince, British Royal Couple, Prime Minister of Malaysia, Vice President China, Emir of Qatar, Queen of Netherland and Sri Lankan Cricket team.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2020.