Unusual spike in street crimes irks citizens
PHOTO: FILE
During the first 20 days of Ramazan, citizens were deprived of cars, motorcycles, mobile phones and rickshaws worth millions of rupees in an extraordinarily large number of incidents of street crimes in the garrison city.
According to the street crimes data obtained by The Express Tribune, 827 incidents of street crimes have been reported so far in the holy month.
Street criminals snatched or stole valuable vehicles from 78 citizens while police remained unsuccessful in recovering even a single stolen vehicle in 20 days.
According to the data, 454 motorcycles were stolen or snatched during the same period. The minimum value of the stolen motorcycles is more than Rs13.6 million.
In the first 20 days of Ramazan, 345 citizens were robbed of their mobile phones at gunpoint while 10 rickshaws were stolen from different areas.
According to the crime statistics, a total of 82 incidents of street crimes are being reported in Rawalpindi every day. Most incidents of street crimes were reported in New Town, Sadiqabad, Pirwadhai, Bani and Waris Khan police stations of Rawal Division.
On the other hand, Potohar Division’s Cantt, Westridge, Airport, Morgah, Taxila, Naseerabad and Civil Lines police stations failed to protect citizens against street crimes.
In Rawalpindi Saddar Division, citizens faced street crime incidents in the jurisdictions of Saddar Baruni, Dhamiyal, Chakri, Rawat and Gujar Khan police stations.
Sources said Rawalpindi Police busted 12 highly active gangs and main suspects involved in street crime incidents in the first 20 days of Ramazan while efforts were being made to get maximum punishment awarded to them.
They said the biggest obstacle in getting the suspects sentenced is citizens avoiding the process of identifying the accused. “If the citizens cooperate with the police investigation, the suspects may be punished,” they added.
Police officials say that every effort is made to protect the life and property of the citizens, but the lack of resources and manpower is a big problem.
Last year, the crime data obtained from police sources had also shown a huge increase in street crime incidents in the garrison city while the year 2022 proved to be as difficult for the people of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad as the preceding year as a significant increase in street crimes was witnessed in both cities despite tall claims of curbing the rate of crime by the police high-ups.
Rawalpindi recorded a 154% increase in street crimes last year. However, the police removed the top crime of mobile snatching from the crime data sheet to show its ‘improved efficiency’.
Similarly, more than 10,500 cases were registered in 2022 in which citizens lost goods and cash worth Rs4 billion in armed robbery, theft, street crime and other incidents.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2023.