Reform or relapse: A day in the life of a pickpocket

Three cases are registered against Waseem alias Khichi for picking pockets.

FAISALABAD:

Muhammad Waseem, an 11-year-old pickpocket, housed at the Borstal Institution and Juvenile Jail in Faisalabad, has been in and out of the jail for three years. Three cases are currently registered against him.

Waseem alias Khichi, talking to The Express Tribune, says he plans to resume his “profession” once he is released.

Waseem says that he has been part of a seven-member gang. “I have two brothers and two sisters. My father died two years ago,” he says.

He says a boy from the neighbourhood introduced him to the gang.

“Every morning, we scan the newspapers for news of rallies, funerals, weddings, exhibitions and fairs. When there are no attractive events, we head to bus stands, railway stations, wagon stands and shopping centres,” Waseem says.

“We get instructions from a ringleader, who normally monitors our activities and moves in to protect us if there is a danger of us being caught,” he said. Waseem refuses to disclose the identity of the gang’s leader.

Waseem claims he has successfully picked nearly 500 pockets. “Picking pockets is an art. Selecting the right crowd is essential.

A high degree of manual dexterity is also required. We don’t allow our target to realise what is happening,” he said. “By the time a person discovers that he has been robbed, a clever pick pocket has melted into the crowd,” Waseem said. “Hardly, 20 per cent of those robbed lodge complaints with the police. Most of them just go home,” he said.

“People having connections in police can get their valuables back because local police know every pickpocket by name and face,” Waseem reveals.

“My best day was when we stole 32 mobile phones and Rs60,000 in one day from a fair in Chak Jhumra,” he said. Waseem says that he always dresses conservatively to avoid arousing suspicion.

“Sometimes, we dress like beggars,” he says. Waseem says pickpockets after close observation. “We do not waste our time on people with empty pockets,” he said. “When one of us is caught, many people beat us up ruthlessly. The ringleader and other gang members try to shield us on the pretext of handing us over to police. To appear convincing, they too beat us,” he says. Advocate Nosheen, an activist of Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, said that prison authorities were not doing enough to reform the inmates. “Their priority is to maintain physical control. They do not do anything for reforming the inmates,” she says. Borstal Jail Superintendent Sheikh Azhar Hayat says that the purpose of the jail is to separate juvenile criminals from adult inmates. “The company of hardened criminals can have a devastating impact upon young minds,” he says.

“We provide educational and recreational facilities for the inmates.

There is a school at the jail for students from grade 1 to matriculation. The inmates are also taught the Holy Quran,” he says.

He says that the jail authorities try their best to reform juvenile offenders, such as Waseem. “If they continue to commit crimes after being released from prisons, then their parents and the society at large is to blame for it,” Hayat says.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2014.