KARACHI, July 13: The industrial areas of the city have emerged as a fresh ‘soft’ target for criminals, as in some five zones housing more than 10,000 production units, robberies, hijacking of consignments and in a few cases kidnappings for ransom have become almost a routine business.

Both the business community and the authorities concerned recognize the rising trend in these areas, but little has been done to put a stop to such activities, which not only discourages industrialists and investors but also puts the performance of the law enforcers in question.

“In our area (industrial zone), the trend of robberies and kidnappings for ransom has witnessed a phenomenal jump during the last few months,” said Idris Gigi, chairman Federal B Area Association of Trade and Industry.

“Fear has been embedded so deeply in the hearts of industrialists here that most of them don’t even receive phone calls from unknown numbers, fearing extortion demands or other unwanted things.”

He said concerns had been conveyed to the police high-ups and the provincial authorities, which focused on a joint strategy from both sides – industrial associations and law enforcers – to put a stop to such activities.

Records at the police stations regulating law and order in the industrial areas suggest that more than 50 cases were reported during the last two months in the five zones – Federal B Area, North Karachi, Site, Landhi and Korangi.

A senior police official, however, said that the number of these crimes is much more than the reported cases, as the majority of industrialists avoid approaching the police, fearing negative consequences for pursing the criminals.

“The situation is particularly bad in the Federal B Area and North Karachi industrial areas, where frequent incidents have been occurring during the last few months and most of the time, they have gone unreported,” he added.

The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that when several affected industrialists were asked about the crimes, they denied the incidents ever happened.

Industrialist Akhtar Lakhani, however, shared the horrible episode his company and its staff went through recently when some four robbers took away more than Rs1.7 million at gunpoint in North Karachi.

“After withdrawing cash from a bank for staff salary, my accountant was returning to work in an office van when four armed robbers intercepted the vehicle, took away cash and warned him not to report the incident to the police,” he said.

“In such an insecure situation, one cannot even imagine expanding the business. This is the situation that prevails in areas that return billions of rupees in taxes and employ hundreds of thousands of people,” he added.

Another industrialist, on the condition of anonymity, agreed to briefly recall an incident, which caused his production unit in Korangi to remain closed for more than a week.

“Two containers of raw material we use for production were hijacked near Sohrab Goth recently and released after a hefty amount was paid,” he said, without elaborating the amount of money he paid and the exact time of the incident.

Noor Ahmed, chairman of the North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry, agreed the trend has damaged the morale of his area’s businessmen and most of them are under the grip of immense fear and pressure.

“Hijacking of consignments and robberies are nothing new, but they have increased rapidly,” he said, adding that the authorities were aware of the situation and assured the businessmen they would take appropriate measures.

The government seems to have realised the magnitude of the situation, but their plans to protect industrial zones from crimes and security measures for the business community sound time-consuming.

‘Foolproof security’

“We have provided nearly Rs250 million to each association, representing industrial zones of the city for infrastructure development,” said Sindh Minister for Industries Rauf Siddiqi. “However, there is confusion whether these funds can be utilized for better security by these associations or not. But there is a policy already in place of the community police force mainly for these areas, which maintains law and order and offers foolproof security round the clock.”

He said his ministry had recommended that a part of the funds offered by the Sindh government be utilized for security arrangements, which would help these associations design a strategy in line with their requirements.

The industrialists, on the other hand, have started planning and designing a system to check crimes in their areas and some of them are convinced of dealing with the issue on their own.

“We have engaged a few technical individuals and organizations for installation of closed-circuit cameras in our area,” said Mr Gigi. He said a command and control system would be established in the association’s office, which would monitor activity in each and every street of the industrial area.

“On the other hand, with the help of the area police we have asked all of our members not to withdraw cash from banks without security. We provide at least two armed policemen to whichever industrialist of the area approaches the association’s office before withdrawing cash from banks,” he added.