KARACHI, July 28: Twenty-seven vehicles a day were taken away in each month on an average during the first half of this year showing a slight decline as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.

The police sources quoting the statistics said the bandits took away 4,867 vehicles from Jan-June this year as compared with 4,941 vehicles during Jan-June 2001.

Although an overall decline is evident from the statistics, the break-up of cars and motorcycles showed that the police had focussed curbing carjacking incidents as only 1,943 cars were taken away in the first half of this year as compared with 2,225 in the corresponding span of previous year.

However, the bandits took away 2,924 motorcycles in the first half of 2002, as compared with 2,686 from Jan-Jun 2001, showing a steep rise in motorcycle-lifting incidents.

According to the police statistics the number of incidents of carjacking and motorcycle lifting were reduced from January to March this year as 714 vehicles were taken away in March as compared with 785 vehicles in February and 886 vehicles in January. However, the bandits took away 837 vehicles in April, 831 in May and 814 in June 2002.

The sources claimed that the number of incidents had declined from January to March due to deployment of police personnel at five exit and entry points of the metropolis including Dhabeji on National Highway, Super Highway, Mochko, etc. It was observed that the criminals did not transport the hijacked/stolen vehicle through non-carpeted routes but they used the roads including Hub River Road, Super Highway and National Highway.

The deployment of police manpower at these points always lead to a decline in the carjacking incidents as they could not transport the vehicles easily from other routes.

Since the introduction of police reforms and enforcement of new system in the police, the manpower from the Anti-Car Lifting Cell had been withdrawn and it had become difficult for the ACLC to deploy the manpower at exit and entry routes. The checking of vehicles on these routes were not being properly carried out since March this year.

The sources said the police officers, who were efficiently working with the ACLC, were transferred to other police wings, which had hampered the efforts to curb the menace of carjacking and motorbike-lifting incidents. They said the police officers, whose performance was effective in controlling the carjacking and motorbike-lifting incidents should have remained posted for sometime to seek positive results. The ACLC was still a neglected wing of the Sindh police and a proper focus was not being given to improve its performance, the sources claimed.

A fear of being checked remained in March and gradually, the criminals observed a free hand on these routes and started their transportation of taken-away vehicles again from April this year, which ultimately showed a rising trend in carjacking incidents.

The average ratio for the recovery of four-wheelers by the police remained around 43 per cent during the first half of this year and for two-wheelers it was at 26 per cent. The ratio of recovery in the corresponding period of the year 2001, was more than 50 per cent for four-wheelers and 28 per cent for two-wheelers.

The most vulnerable areas where the cases of carjacking were at their peak in June included Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Ferozabad, and Clifton.

The areas where the motorcycle-lifters faced least resistance on the part of police while committing the offence in June were Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Ferozabad, Azizabad, Garden, New Karachi, Aram Bagh, Buffer Zone, Nazimabad, Kharadar, etc.