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KARACHI, July 11: A task force was constituted here on Monday for combating the incidents of cellphone snatching and theft and checking the trading in such sets in the local markets. The new body has been set up under a directive of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz who, during his recent visit to the city, had taken notice of the growing menace.
The task force would be headed by SSP Anti-Violent Crime Cell Farooq Awan. However, it would work under the overall supervision of the DIG Investigation-1.
City police chief Tariq Jamil said that cellphone snatchers would be arrested and handed over to the task force for further interrogation.
He said that the task force would also carry out survey of the markets. On the basis of the survey and the interrogation, the task force would gather intelligence information about those involved in the racket and would carry out raids to apprehend them red-handed.
Meanwhile, police said that 12 cellphones were snatched at gunpoint and another 20 stolen on Monday. According to the complaints lodged with the ‘Madadgar 15’, bandits snatched 16 cellphones at gunpoint on Sunday.
While the police data shows that 158 cellphones had been snatched at gunpoint during the first 10 days of this month, the CPLC data submitted to the police, puts the number of snatched cellphones at 178 and that of stolen ones at 253 during the period.
TRADERS FREED: Police on Monday released 15 shopkeepers picked up from the Saddar electronics market on Sunday after seizing 250 cellphones from them.
Police had picked up a total of 16 shopkeepers for their alleged involvement in the trading of snatched/stolen phones. However, after verification, only one of sets turned out to be stolen one. One of the shopkeepers, Asif Iqbal, was kept in custody while the others let off.
The Karachi Electronics Dealers Association said that the police had picked up innocent shopkeepers on Sunday and kept them in ‘solitary confinement’ until Monday morning.
It wondered that the police, instead of coming out with any proof that the seized cellphones were those snatched or stolen before being sold in the market, kept insisting that it was up to the arrested shopkeepers to prove that the police claim was wrong. KEDA maintained that all of the seized sets had been refurbished and imported, and said that relevant documents had also been produced to satisfy the police. However, it complained, the police refused to return the sets and advised their owners to collect the same from the court concerned.
The association, expressing concern over harassment of shopkeepers and customers on the part of the police, urged police not to resort to such practices, and held out the assurance that KEDA itself would identify those indulged in illegal trading of this kind.
