FAISALABAD, Jan 1: The district showed an increase in the crime rate in the year 2003 as compared with the previous year for the incidents of heinous crime were on the peak throughout the year.

The official crime figures in the district revealed that incidents of all crimes particularly abduction, murder, attempted murder, dacoity, robbery and kidnap for ransom witnessed an increase during the period.

A total of 19,885 cases were registered during 2003 as against 20,244 of the year 2002 indicating a decline of 359 cases. However, the fact speaks otherwise. As many as 8,523 cases of recovery of illicit weapons were registered during 2002 as against only 3,565 of the current year. Around 90 percent of the recovery cases of illicit arms registered in 2002 were proved bogus in subsequent inquiries.

The weapon recovery cases were registered only for getting rewards as announced by the then Punjab IGP. A difference of 4,958 cases on account of weapons recovery clearly reflects that in 2003 about 5,000 cases were registered extra as compared with the previous year leaving about 25 percent increase in the crime graph.

Likewise, a comparison of the head-wise crime figures also indicates that kidnap for rape and kidnap for ransom cases witness about 53 percent increase in 2003 as 578 cases of such nature have been registered during 2003 as against 376 of the previous year.

The incidents of rape have also gone up 40 percent as police have registered 121 rape cases, including 11 gang-rape, during 2003 as against only 87 in 2002. The police also smashed 47 dens of lesbians during 2003 as compared with 14 of the previous year.

Incidents of dacoity, highway robbery and vehicle snatching have also shown a substantial increase as police had registered 942 cases of such nature in 2003 as against 437 in 2002.

Similarly, 1,639 theft cases including lifting of motorcycles and cars were registered during the period in review as against 1,015 in 2002. The incidents of cattle-lifting and burglary have also recorded a sharp increase as the police had registered 2,018 such cases in 2003 as against 1,488 during the previous year.

The resistance by the people against police and other government agencies has also gone up as 66 cases were registered against public for resisting against police during 2003 as against 53 in the previous year. Likewise, 42 cases were registered in 2003 as against 19 of previous year for offering resistance against government agencies.

The crime against people has witnessed a major increase as 432 cases of murder were registered in 2003 as against 409 in 2002. Similarly, 425 cases of attempted murder were registered in the current year as compared with 370 of the previous year. At least 1,534 cases were registered during 2003 for attacking and injuring people as against only 915 of the previous year.

However, strenuous efforts made by the local police resulted in the arrest of 1,782 proclaimed offenders during 2003 as against 1,257 POs in 2002. Most of the POs were rounded up during the last three months.

The police officials said that in most of the major crimes the criminals involved invariably belonged to other districts. Unemployment, decline in moral and social values, Afghan refugees, absence of town planning and boom in population, growing trend among the masses of watching violent and obscene movies, were contributing to the rise in the crime ratio.