Court staffers say targeted by motorbike thieves

Seven motorcycles stolen from gates of Sessions Court in three months.

LAHORE:

Junior staffers are seeking parking space inside the Sessions Court following a series of motorcycle thefts from just outside the building.

At least seven motorcycles, most of them owned by staffers, have been stolen from near one of the gates of the building in the last three months.

Court employees Sagheer Ahmed Tarar, Sultan Qureshi and Muhammad Saeed told The Express Tribune that their motorbikes had been stolen in broad daylight. They have lodged cases with the police, but none of the bikes have been recovered or the culprits arrested.

“Now we all lock our bikes with two wire-locks,” said one staffer. “Even then I feel insecure and I go and check on my bike two or three times a day.”

They said that they suspected that they had been targeted by professionals who had staked out their routines, as their bikes had been stolen while they had been away from them only for a short time.

Tarar’s motorcycle was stolen from just outside the Islampura gate of the court, while Qureshi’s was stolen from outside the judges’ gate. They said they should be allowed to park inside the court premises like more senior court employees.

They complained about the police, saying that though they had registered FIRs, they had not made a serious effort to track down the thieves. Islampura Station House Officer Muhammad Amin said the police were searching for the culprits and hoped that they would be arrested soon. He said he could not say whether an organised criminal gang was behind the thefts.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2011.