February 8, 2003	Saturday	Zul Hijjah 6,1423

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RAWALPINDI, Feb 7: The recent reshuffle of the station house officers (SHOs) has failed to deliver, as recovery percentage has dropped to 11 per cent in January 2003 compared with 46 per cent of the corresponding period last year, official source told Dawn.

There has also been an increase in the registration of cases, as 968 cases of various nature have been registered with the Rawalpindi district police in January 2003 compared with 957 cases registered in the corresponding period last year, the statistics show.

A police expert said the statistics compiled by the police only contained the cases reported to the police.

Statistics show that worth Rs1,1799056 of valuables were either looted by the culprits or stolen from Rawalpindi district in January 2003 compared with worth Rs92,94183 of the valuables looted or stolen in the corresponding period last year. While the police recovered worth Rs13,12500 of valuables in January 2003 compared with worth Rs42,57800 of the valuables recovered in the corresponding period last year, the statistics show.

There had also been an increase in cases of murder, as 17 cases had been registered with the police compared with 10 cases registered in same period last year.

However, there had been a slight fall in incidents of attempted murder, as 25 such incidents had come to light in January 2003 as compared with 26 reported in the corresponding period last year.

There had been a slight fall in cases of abduction, as 18 cases were registered with the district police in January 2003 compared with 19 cases registered in January 2002. While two gangrape cases were reported with the police in January 2003, the statistics show.

Similarly, 22 robberies and 52 burglaries were reported with the police in January 2003.

As many as 31 incidents of vehicle lifting were reported with the police in January with an average of one vehicle per day. What is worth-mentioning is that the police are etching the engine and the chassis number on the wind screen of cars and are charging Rs100 per car. But this exercise has not helped the police in this regard.

A police officer posted at the office of Rescue 15 at Liaquat Bagh requesting anonymity said the sand blasting (etching) exercise was nothing but a money-minting exercise having no legal status.