Home invasions: Locals perplexed as burglaries on rise in F-11

Blame an Afghan gang; police claim no burglaries in last week.

ISLAMABAD:

Armed burglaries are on the rise in Sector F-11.

And according to the bemused residents,  not much is being done take curtail the trend.

In the past two weeks, three incidents of burglaries at houses have been reported to the police from the sector.

Residents claim a gang of Afghan criminals is behind these crimes and said they felt worried their homes could be next in the series of burglaries.

The police, however, gave conflicting accounts of the situation. While some claimed that the area has witnessed no incidents since March 3, others said that they are looking into several incidents that happened recently.

A senior police official, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that they have begun investigating a group of Afghan operatives in the area which might be involved in the burglaries.

The official said the police recently busted an Afghan gang in Sector E-11. That gang had also committed a string of burglaries before it was caught, suggesting to the police that there is a pattern to these crimes.

Some officials believe slum dwellings across the road from F-11/1 and F-11/2 are a safe haven for criminals, which has made the two sub-sectors vulnerable to criminal activity.

Among the recent incidents in F-11, on March 3 at around 3am, four men broke into the house of a Jordanian national who works at the embassy of Jordan. The burglars locked the inmates in a room and took away Rs12,000 in cash and a mobile within 10 minutes, the case investigation officer said.

The houses of a businessman and a private bank employee in F-11/1 were also burgled last week.

Police seem to have put the onus of security back on the residents of the sector.

The senior police official suggested residents of F-11/1 and F-11/2 should hire a security guard who could alert the police by calling Rescue 15 if they notice any suspicious activity. The police could then concentrate their presence in the area, the official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2013.