The largest metropolis of the country, Karachi, has been witnessing an increase in street crime after the catastrophic floods, Sindh Police officials have said.
In a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior chaired by Senator Mohsin Aziz, police officers gave a briefing over the increasing street crime cases in the port city.
The police officers said that half of the criminals caught by them belonged to other parts of the country. The Senate body expressed concerns over the situation of rising street crimes in the city. Police and the other relevant departments have been directed to initiate a crackdown against the criminals.
The committee also reviewed the law and order situation, police performance in preventing street crimes including theft, robbery, kidnapping, murder and target killings.
The police officers informed the committee that there has been an extraordinary increase in street crimes after the recent floods and the police officers have been directed to register FIRs.
Police also shared its data regarding street crimes in Karachi. According to the data, 385 people had been killed in 2018, 393 in 2021 whereas 369 suspected killers had been arrested till August 31, 2022. The data included that 2,211 vehicles were snatched in 2018, 26,846 stolen whereas the number of stolen mobile phones was 15,678. The same data said that for 2021, 4,783 vehicles were snatched, 49,608 stolen and 25,000 mobile phones were snatched.
The senators expressed grave concern over the situation of street crimes in the city.
Member Standing Committee Senator Fauzia Arshad and Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri expressed reservations over the situation. They said that the numbers reported in media were different than the statistics presented before the committee.
According to the Sindh Police officials, there was a low rate of rape cases in Sindh and Balochistan except in Machar Colony, where the number of such cases was reported high. Sindh police officials also said that the people from Afghanistan were involved in selling of drugs, adding that all of the Afghan refugees were not registered and steps were being taken for their registration.
