Street crimes still in the rise in Karachi

CPLC figures suggest surge in street offences, criminals acquitted owing to flaws in police investigation

KARACHI:

While records show a drop in major crime incidents in the city of 20 million, Karachi’s toxic tryst with street crimes is one Gordian knot that law enforcement agencies have remained unable to cut. Those arrested, claim local police, are somehow acquitted by the courts and escape conviction. The criminals then return to terrorise the streets with even greater zeal; knowing full well that the justice system has little bearing on their life of crime.

Per data gathered by the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), Karachi has experienced considerable decrease in crimes like kidnapping for ransom, extortion and robbery between 2019 to 2020. Whereas, street crimes like mobile snatching, mugging and vehicle theft have taken a concerning flight in the recent past.

For instance, CPLC statistics recorded some 1,699 incidents of theft and snatching of four-wheeled vehicles and 30,506 such cases for two-wheeled vehicles in 2019. The figure had climbed to 1,722 and 37,707 respectively, by 2020. Similarly, there were some 20,978 incidents of mobile snatching reported in 2019, while a year later, the figure had surged to 21,558 reported incidents of the category.

Addressing the figures, senior crime reporter Hanif Manjothi said that he expects the actual number of mobile snatching cases to be twice the issued figure, considering such cases are often never reported to the police.

Another figure the CPLC data shines light on is the rate of recovery for stolen vehicles and mobile phones, which appears to be rather low in Karachi. Out of the total 3,421 four-wheelers snatched and stolen in 2019 and 2020, only 940 vehicles were disclosed to be recovered. Likewise, for the total 68,213 motorbikes snatched and stolen during the same period, some 6,400 made it back to their owners, while out of the 42,536 mugged mobile phones, only 5,790 could be recovered.

A reason cited for Karachi’s unabated street-crime rate is the lack of justice served to those arrested, which has enabled and empowered new crops of criminals over the years. According to a Law Department report recently submitted to the Sind Assembly, over 50 per cent of accused criminals arrested by Karachi Police during 2017 and 2018, eventually managed to be acquitted by the relevant courts.

As per Karachi Police Additional Inspector General (IG) Imran Yaqoob Minhas, the rise in street crime is also owed to a shift in the police’s focus, which has been keener about chasing culprits of major crimes. Acquittal of culprits, he acknowledged, is another can of worms, which the department has been trying its best to find a solution to.

The Additional IG maintained that police’s job goes beyond merely arresting culprits and submitting challans against them at the courts. In his opinion, it is the police’s responsibility to chase cases right until conviction. “The acquittals could be due to flaws in police investigation, but the major issue we face is the standard of evidence. In that regard, we are trying to improve the quality of police evidence so that we can ensure conviction of criminals,” he told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2021.