KARACHI, Jan 5: As the federal and provincial governments are engaged in compiling data of public and private properties damaged in the violence following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination along with arson activities, officials have gathered information which suggests that gangsters managed to operate more freely during the three-day mourning announced by the state with a higher number of street crimes.
Figures compiled by police authorities and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) suggest a higher number of street crimes along with shootouts in various parts of the city, bank break-ins and killings of innocent people between Dec 27 and 30.
“Between these four days a total of 348 mobile phones were stolen or snatched at gunpoint from people mainly stranded on the roads due to the non-availability of transport and breakdown in law order,” said an official citing the figures compiled on the basis of reports gathered from different police stations.
“These figures are a little higher compared to normal days, as on average 50-60 cell phones are reported snatched by different police stations. But it seems miscreants exploited the breakdown in the law and order situation and carried out their business in the city at a much faster pace,” the source added.
He said the areas in Zone East of the police set-up witnessed a greater number of criminal activities as gangsters, pretending to be political activists protesting against the death of the former prime minister, mugged people.
“The majority of such complaints have been received from the main University Road in Gulshan-i-Iqbal,” said the official. “The length of that road is so long that it involves several police stations. Most of the commuters, motorcyclists and passers-by were intercepted there during the four days of violence as the whole area was deserted with no public transport on the road,” he said.
Similarly, the data compiled by the police and CPLC suggested an abnormal jump in the cases of theft and snatching of cars in the city during the days of violence. A total of 38 cars were taken away by robbers during the days when the city descended into anarchy after the news of Ms Bhutto’s assassination spread by sunset on Dec 27.
“The numbers themselves are not very surprising in a city like Karachi,” added the official. “But analyzing the situation in the given circumstances reveals that the criminal gangs were more active or maybe waiting for a situation like this to execute their plans, which proved more productive as no law-enforcing agency was there to protect the public and private properties, or to put a stop to the street crimes,” he said.
Conflicting figures
The Sindh government has issued its assessment of losses of life and property during the spell of violence the days after the Liaquat Bagh tragedy. It said 900 vehicles were destroyed, 131 banks were set on fire, 37 police stations attacked, 31 petrol pumps torched while 40 persons lost their lives and 57 were injured throughout the province.
However, the figures compiled by the city government survey disagree with the provincial authority’s stand, since the local body counted some 850 vehicles burnt or damaged and 22 people dead in Karachi alone. The local body survey lists 26 bank branches and two post offices torched, 60 shops destroyed, 17 petrol pumps set on fire, 24 factories set ablaze and a police station and a railway junction wrecked in the metropolis during the violence. The two assessments, however, did not take street crimes into account while compiling the figures.
Critics believe such activities in the garb of political activism and protests were as alarming as damaging the public and private properties.
“In the four days of violence, 124 motorcycles were either snatched at gunpoint or stolen while they were parked,” said the source citing the data.
Similarly, the figures gathered by the State Bank of Pakistan could also add to the worries of the authorities planning to compensate the victims.
The SBP said a total of 699 bank branches and 148 ATMs were damaged across the country during violence which erupted after the assassination of the PPP chairperson with Sindh topping among other provinces in registering number of incidents where 521 branches of different local and foreign banks were damaged.
The data said in Punjab 164 bank branches were attacked followed by the NWFP and Balochistan where seven such places were destroyed in each province.
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