KARACHI, Dec 3: The task force, established on the orders of the Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, for combating incidents of cellphone snatching and theft, has failed to yield positive results, as 77 people are still deprived of their cellphones everyday.
Well-placed sources said that the Prime Minister had taken serious notice of the growing incidents of cellphone snatching and theft in the city and ordered the setting up of a task force on July 11 this year.
Despite the establishment of the task force, the police have miserably failed to put an effective check on cellphone snatching and theft incidents, as bandits have so far either snatched or stolen more than 25,700 cellphones since January this year, the sources maintained.
They said that more than 9,700 cellphones were snatched at gunpoint in various localities while 15,900 others had been reported stolen. During the past 15 days, from November 16-30, bandits either snatched or stole more than 1,500 cellphones.
However, spokesman for the Capital City Police Officer clarified the figures and said that only 251 cellphones had been snatched during the said period and 91 out of them were recovered.
The task force was assigned to carry out survey of markets where snatched or stolen cellphones were sold or purchased. On the basis of interrogation of the arrested suspects and survey of markets, the task force would gather intelligence about the persons involved in the racket i.e. snatchers, middle-men, shopkeepers, and would carry out raids to arrest suspects red-handedly.
The task force would coordinate for carrying out raids if necessary with town police officers concerned and the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee. However, sources said that the police did not synchronize figures of incidents reported on Madadgar 15 with the CPLC.
The sources said that the task force had arrested some suspects and had recovered more than 100 cellphones, which could be termed as a dismal performance by the task force.
They said that the sale of stolen cellphones was being carried out at various markets in the city and the security features of stolen mobile phones were being altered in specified shops of the city to make them reusable.
The police know about the crime spots but they appear reluctant in taking action against the criminals, the sources added.
