Police-gang nexus?: Cars continue to vanish from twin cities
CID reports reveal that 793 vehicles have been stolen over the past five months.
CID reports reveal that 793 vehicles have been stolen over the past five months.
RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD:
The twin cities’ police departments have failed to control car lifting, which has surged to alarming levels as hundreds of citizens have been deprived of their vehicles during the first five months of this year.
According to monthly reports prepared by the twin cities’ Criminal Investigation Department (CID), 793 vehicles, of which 288 are from Islamabad, have been stolen over the past five months.
The reports highlight that police performance had plunged to new lows, as only 15 vehicles have been recovered, most of them by their owners.
The police have complete information of the car lifting gangs’ whereabouts, their target areas, where they reside and where the stolen vehicles get transported, said the reports.
It has also been learnt that the police strongly discourage complainants from registering cases and advise them to travel to Peshawar or the tribal areas in search of their stolen vehicles.
“Our car has been stolen from Qayyumabad in Dhoke Kala Khan on June 3 but the Sadiqabad police are reluctant to register an FIR,” said Samina, a resident of Chaklala Scheme III, who has been visiting the police station for the past five days.
An anti-car lifting cell official requesting anonymity said that the police often expect to receive a bribe from stolen car owners in return for registering an FIR. He added that car lifting gangs were enjoying police patronage.
“The police know that an individual who owns vehicles worth Rs1 to 1.5 million would ‘oblige them’ to entertain their complaints,” said the official.
The stolen cars are often used as taxis in the Federally and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Fata, Pata), where non-custom paid vehicles are allowed to ply on the roads.
When contacted, Inspector General of Police Islamabad Bani Amin claimed that the report was based on erroneous figures, adding that he would provide his own version to clear the air.
“CID has nothing to do with car thefts. The department deals with countering terrorism,” he said.
Amin claimed that several large car lifting gangs had been arrested during the past two years but failed to provide any further details. He added that the gangs have their links in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The reports revealed that gangs who had remained active during the Awami National Party’s tenure had gone underground due to the recent change in government, but would resurface with the passage of time.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2013.
The twin cities’ police departments have failed to control car lifting, which has surged to alarming levels as hundreds of citizens have been deprived of their vehicles during the first five months of this year.
According to monthly reports prepared by the twin cities’ Criminal Investigation Department (CID), 793 vehicles, of which 288 are from Islamabad, have been stolen over the past five months.
The reports highlight that police performance had plunged to new lows, as only 15 vehicles have been recovered, most of them by their owners.
The police have complete information of the car lifting gangs’ whereabouts, their target areas, where they reside and where the stolen vehicles get transported, said the reports.
It has also been learnt that the police strongly discourage complainants from registering cases and advise them to travel to Peshawar or the tribal areas in search of their stolen vehicles.
“Our car has been stolen from Qayyumabad in Dhoke Kala Khan on June 3 but the Sadiqabad police are reluctant to register an FIR,” said Samina, a resident of Chaklala Scheme III, who has been visiting the police station for the past five days.
An anti-car lifting cell official requesting anonymity said that the police often expect to receive a bribe from stolen car owners in return for registering an FIR. He added that car lifting gangs were enjoying police patronage.
“The police know that an individual who owns vehicles worth Rs1 to 1.5 million would ‘oblige them’ to entertain their complaints,” said the official.
The stolen cars are often used as taxis in the Federally and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Fata, Pata), where non-custom paid vehicles are allowed to ply on the roads.
When contacted, Inspector General of Police Islamabad Bani Amin claimed that the report was based on erroneous figures, adding that he would provide his own version to clear the air.
“CID has nothing to do with car thefts. The department deals with countering terrorism,” he said.
Amin claimed that several large car lifting gangs had been arrested during the past two years but failed to provide any further details. He added that the gangs have their links in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The reports revealed that gangs who had remained active during the Awami National Party’s tenure had gone underground due to the recent change in government, but would resurface with the passage of time.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2013.