‘Comprehensive’ strategy helped curb crimes in Pindi

Number of serious crimes and accidents fell by 16%.

RAWALPINDI:

There was a perceptible decline in serious crimes and accidents in Rawalpindi in the first six months of 2012, according to the police.

The Rawalpindi police registered 1742 serious crimes from January to June in 2012, as opposed to 2088 in the same period in 2011. This translates to a decrease of over 16%. The nature of crimes and accidents being measured here are: murders, attempted murders, fatal traffic accidents, kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery, car thefts, motorcycle thefts and thefts.

The total number of registered cases, however, showed a marginal decline, at 8890 in 2012 against 9041 in 2011.

The biggest improvement was in the case of stolen motorcycles and cars. In 2012, the number of bikes stolen fell by a sizable 25%, according to the statistics provided by the Rawalpindi police. This means that for every four motorcycle stolen in 2011, three were stolen in 2012.

Car thefts also declined by over 20% in 2012 --- for every five cars stolen in 2011, four were stolen in 2012.

Armed robberies fell by over 35%. However, the total number of robberies, including muggings, remained constant with 296 incidents in 2012 compared to 300 in 2011.

Murders fell by more than 22%, with 141 murders in the first six months of 2012, as opposed to 181 in 2011.

Kidnappings for ransom showed the biggest decline. The number of such cases in 2012 was three, as opposed to 12 in 2011.

The Rawalpindi attributed the generally improved statistics to a “comprehensive” strategy implemented by the Inspector General of Punjab Police Habibur Rehman after he took charge.

Not everything was better than 2011, however. The city police faced increased resistance from citizens and outlaws compared to last year, as the number of cases of people resisting arrest rose to 30 from 21 in 2011.

Accidents on roads showed no improvement, with 69 fatal and 111 non-fatal accidents this year, compared to 70 fatal and 114 non-fatal accidents last year.

Cattle theft fell from 39 cases last year to 24 this year. Under Section 411, the city police registered cases but recoveries remained very low, according to the police report. Overall, 559 cases of bogus checks were reported this year, compared to 6,300 last year.

Also, 1,228 cases related to illegal arms were registered, 2,827 cases were registered under anti-narcotics laws, and 86 for gambling.

Police officials termed the crime situation in the city “under control” since the new Punjab IG took charge.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2012.