Police claim crime rate down by 20% in capital
PHOTO: FILE
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Aamir Zulfiqar Khan shared that, as per a report from the Operation Division of the Islamabad police, heinous criminal activities went down about 20 per cent in the capital in 2020 as compared to the previous year.
The IGP said this in a ceremony held at the Police Line Headquarters to hand over keys of 42 recovered vehicles and 57 motorcycles to their rightful owners, a spokesperson shared on Thursday.
He noted that a 70 per cent decline was witnessed in robbery incidents as a total of 37 such incidents were reported at various police stations in 2019 with only 11 cases reported in 2020 while robbery incidents declined by 26 per cent with 363 robbery incidents reported in 2019 as compared to 269 in 2020.
Similarly, burglary and theft cases witnessed a decline of 28 per cent with 699 cases in 2019 as compared to 515 such cases in 2020, the IGP shared, adding that a decline of 12 per cent was also witnessed in vehicle theft cases with a total of 734 cases reported in 2020 as compared to 834 in the previous year.
The spokesperson informed that Industrial Area Superintendent of Police (SP) Zubair Ahmed Sheikh constituted special teams to curb bike lifting incidents in the area, showing extraordinary performance by recovering 51 motorcycles stolen in the twin cities.
The Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) teams recovered 28 vehicles from various areas of the city, including City Zone, Saddar and Rural zones, he added.
Furthermore, a total of 1,555 persons were held for their involvement in criminal activities, including robbery, snatching, theft and car and bikes lifting during the outgoing year. The report also mentioned that police recovered stolen valuables or items worth Rs1,413 million along with 469 vehicles as well as 296 motorcycles from the accused’s possession.
The police chief said that the capital police succeeded in busting 353 gangs while nabbing 905 gangsters involved crimes of heinous nature. He shared that joint teams of the Counter Terrorism Department and the Operation Division would conduct snap checking in the city.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2021.