LAHORE: The criminals are on the rampage as they are looting an average of 200 people every day in the provincial capital, thwarting the police’s most strategies to bring down the crime rate. The first 10 days of Ramazan remained very hard for the citizens as over 1,000 crime incidents were reported during that period.

According to some statistics, nearly 74,000 crime incidents, including murder, attempted murder, robbery and theft were reported during the last 80 days in Lahore alone. The last Wednesday witnessed the highest number of street crimes — over 500 — when the robbers made off with over 150 motorcycles, cars, mobile phones and other valuables.

The City Division remained at the top among other divisions where a total of 15,684 crime incidents were reported during the above-mentioned period followed by the Cantonment Division with 14,782 and Model Town Division 13,613 crime incidents. Some sources attribute the rising crime in Lahore to the poor performance of the divisional SPs who lack the potential to deal with the hardened criminals while others blame poor challan submission ratio by the investigation police.

Independent observers believe unemployment, illiteracy, rising inflation and poverty are leading factors behind the crime surge, particularly in Lahore, a city of over 11 million population. They underline the need to address the root causes such as poverty, unemployment, lack of education and social inequality.

200 people are looted daily, 160 motorcycles snatched/lifted on Friday

Sources say the criminals are particularly targeting motorcycles, an economic mean of transportation for ordinary citizens, by snatching them at gunpoint or stealing around 150 motorcycles daily.

On Friday, they said, the thieves again took away over 160 motorcycles from various parts of the city, making Nishtar Colony, Kahna, Shahdara, and Kotlakphat the top among the 84 police stations of the provincial capital. Similarly, nearly eight houses and 10 shops were also looted by the robbers and thieves.

In street crime cases, several citizens were deprived of their mobile phones, cash and other valuables the same day — Friday.

Police experts also blame the low conviction rate, corruption in the investigation wing of police and negligence in completing and submitting challans in the courts to try criminals. They believe the faulty criminal justice system is a leading cause of huge pendency of criminal cases.

The delayed criminal investigation and inadequate prosecution have been the primary factors responsible for the low rate of conviction, the police experts said, adding that the average stay of the criminals in jails remained around six months or so. Most of the repeat offenders were committing crime in Lahore, they said.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2024