CIA report: For car lifters, family sedans are first choice

Car lifting on the rise; crime registration rate low.

ISLAMABAD:

Beware citizens! Car lifting is on the rise in the capital.

According to a confidential Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) report on the incidence of car-lifting in the capital this January, 40 vehicles were stolen from the jurisdiction of different police stations during January alone.

The report says that Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic cars were favourites for carjackers.

The report, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, carries detail of the stolen cars, their registration numbers and the names of the owners. Independent research by The Express Tribune shows that by February 24, the number of cars stolen from the city this year had risen to 56.

Oddly, the crime diary for the last one month says that only eight vehicles were stolen from the city, suggesting that the police failed to lodge FIRs in many cases of vehicular theft.

According to the CIA report, 11 vehicles were lifted from the Sabzi Mandi, six from Aabpara, six from Margala, five from the Industrial Area, three from Sihala, two from Shehzad Town, two from Kohsar, and one each from Golra, Koral, Secretariat, Bhara Kahu and Ramna police stations.

Commenting on the report, a senior Interior Ministry official admitted that the police officials deployed at check posts have failed to curb the occurrence of car thefts.

“You always have to get a telephone call made from the Interior Ministry to get an FIR lodged in an Islamabad police station if your car was stolen,” said Wajid Afridi, whose Honda Civic was stolen from Melody Market last October.

“I am thankful to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who was kind enough to ask Aabpara Police Station House Officer Jamshed Khan to get an FIR lodged.” He said that the SHO delayed the registration of the FIR for 11 days. Incidentally, Khan was later suspended after public complaints against him for not registering FIRs and for his alleged assault of a bank security guard.

Destination well-known

The report reveals that most stolen cars from Islamabad were taken to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the tribal areas to be sold or stripped for parts.

A Car-lifting Cell official requesting anonymity told The Express Tribune that before the launch of the military operation in Khyber Agency, stolen cars were smuggled to the Bara area. “But now, stolen cars are being smuggled to Mardan and Shergarh,” he said.

He claimed that an influential person from Mardan was believed to be behind these well connected car-lifting gangs.

He said that car-lifters normally use the Islamabad -Peshawar Motorway to transport the stolen vehicles to Peshawar and other areas in K-P.

“In most cases, these stolen cars are used as cabs in the tribal areas and Malakand Division,” he said, adding that the presence of non-custom paid and other ‘illegal vehicles’ in the capital was another issue facing the anti-car lifting cell, as influential people are in possession of such vehicles. The police despite their rarity on the road, the police do not stop and check such vehicles, and ultimately they become easy targets for car lifters.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2013.