Curbing crime: Karachi police hold their heads high as crime rate falls

KARACHI:

Issuing the report on the progress of the targeted operation in the metropolis, the city police beamed with pride while citing a noticeable decrease in the number of crime cases during the year.

While addressing a press conference at the Karachi police media cell on Saturday, police spokesperson Inspector Atiq Ahmad Shaikh compared the number of cases during the first five months of the last and current years.

According to Shaikh, 1,153 cases of targeted killings were registered from January to May last year. In contrast, only 760 people succumbed to targeted killings during the same period of this year. Similarly, 400 robberies were reported in 2013 while only 353 have surfaced this year.

However, cases of kidnapping were more in number during the current year, with 32 reported during the first five months of the last year and 35 this year. Without revealing the actual number of 'black sheep' within the police who have been found guilty and punished, the spokesperson assured the media that the police department is working to address the problem.

However, Shaikh failed to give any satisfactory reply when he was questioned about the failure of the police in apprehending the absconding policemen involved the fake encounter in Pirabad last month.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2014.