KARACHI: The ‘Karachi operation’ launched almost three years ago has yet to ensure durable peace and stability in the city as the figures of criminal activities and observations of senior police officials indicated that motorbike thefts and bank heists were on the rise, while the Rangers-led exercise had hardly made any major impact on the number of kidnapping for ransom cases this year, it emerged on Thursday.

Although the year 2016 has witnessed a downward trend in major criminal activities, street crime still remains a major challenge faced by common Karachiites almost every day, officials admitted. In fact, they said, the police data revealed consistent increase in street crimes in the metropolis.

The Counter-Terrorism Department’s data since the launch of operations in Karachi from 2013 showed a reduction in major crimes but street crimes, particularly vehicles theft, remained a major challenge. “The CTD examined crime statistics from start of operation in September 2013 and till today showed decrease in all heads of crimes,” said Additional IGP Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, who heads the CTD in Sindh.

“There was slow and steady decrease in crimes in the years 2013 and 2014, but a drastic decrease in crimes was noted in the year 2015,” said Dr Abbasi, adding that the Karachi operation took a year to bring improvement in law and order.

Crime data from January to July this year also showed a ‘decrease’ in crimes as compared to previous years, he said. The figures coincided with crime data compiled by Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, the officer added.

However, some crimes particularly crimes against property often went unreported, said Dr Abbasi. “Only 30pc victims of mobile snatching report the crimes at police stations, as 70pc do not lodge FIRs,” he said.

‘Something more’ was needed to reduce street crimes, he said. “Lifting of motorcycles still remains a major challenge. The CTD chief also proposed that the people should be encouraged to report crimes at police stations. In order to curb street crimes, sale/purchase of mobile phones should be documented and GSM locators should be installed at markets besides tackling smuggling of snatched goods.

Sharing crime data of the past three years, Dr Abbasi said 852 vehicles (four-wheelers) were snatched in the year 2014, 333 in the year 2015 and 104 so far in this year. Similarly, a total of 2,970 vehicles (four-wheelers) were stolen in the year 2014, 1,798 in 2015 and 923 so far this year.

The data showed that a total of 4,396 motorcycles were snatched in 2014, 2,801 in 2015 and 1,504 during the past seven months, while 18,430 motorbikes were stolen in 2014, 17,936 in 2015 and 12,457 so far this year.

The data of mobile phone snatching and theft cases showed that the crime surged in 2015. The data indicated that around 3,000 more mobiles were snatched last year as compared to the previous year 2014. So far this year 9,297 mobile phones were snatched, while the number of snatching incidents increased from 18,756 in 2014 to 21,198 in 2015.

Similarly, mobile phone thefts have been on the rise. There were 14,130 cases in 2014, 20442 in 2015 and 10,770 so far this year. The CTD data revealed that around 6,000 more mobiles were stolen in the year 2015 as compared to the year 2014.

Although the number of kidnapping for ransom cases were decreased from 112 incidents in 2014 to only 25 last year, but the situation has not improved further this year. During the first half of this year, 15 cases of kidnapping for ransom have already been reported.

However, the murder cases and extortion activities witnessed a decline during these years. According to the police data, 899 incidents of extortion were reported in 2014, 234 in 2015 and 57 during the past seven months. The number of murder cases dropped from 1,606 in the year 2014 to 676 in 2015 and 252 this year so far.

But the CTD data indicated that number of bank heists had increased this year in the city. Last year five bank robberies were reported, while seven bank heists have already been reported during the seven months of the current year.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2016