KARACHI: Easy access to illegal arms pushing up crime rate
By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Oct 15: The reason why the city is saturated with illegal weapons is simple: obtaining an illegal gun is far easier than procuring a legal one. But this doesn’t mean that getting a weapon legally and a licence issued to keep it is in any way a cumbersome process.
No official figures are available to show exactly how many illegal weapons, like most other contraband items are there in Karachi. But officials tasked with keeping an eye on proliferation of weapons say that over one million weapons of different categories have been registered during the last five years.
“There are well-organised gangs of criminals that have penetrated into the city… and they ensure that a weapon of one’s choice is delivered to him at a place specified by the buyer,” admits head of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee Sharfuddin Memon.
“Much of the trading in guns is done by those from the tribal areas of the NWFP,” he says.
There is no longer a steady supply of weapons from Balochistan, says a senior law-enforcement official, adding that such supply routes have been blocked through beefing up security.
The City police chief, Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui, admits that an easy access to weapons is one of the major factors contributing to the growing street crime.
“Gun manufacturing pockets in the NWFP should be taken to the task by the authorities concerned so that the supply could be checked,” he suggests.
The town police officer of Site narrates how his personnel intercepted a man who was carrying a gunny bag containing a Kalashnikov and a mauser.
“He told us during interrogation that he had brought the weapons from Darra, in the NWFP, for a client here,” ASP Javed Akbar said.
Giving the cost of his supplies, the man in custody said that a pistol was worth about Rs8,000 and the sub-machinegun, better known as Kalashnikov, was worth Rs13,000, the officer said, adding that the supplier would charge extra for delivery of the weapon at the specified place.
Sources in the law-enforcement agencies said that for such kind of delivery arrangements, one must need to have some reference or contact in the underworld circles or criminals.
They don’t ask for your CNIC number or a copy of it… they would only make sure that the client will not default on payment, according to a source, who added that generally a pistol cost around Rs7,000 to Rs8,000 and Kalashnikov Rs10,000 to Rs15,000.
To make matters even simpler, weapons are made available on rent but this practice is largely limited to the criminal elements who hand out the weapon at least on acquaintance or reference, reveals a senior police officer. Criminals also buy and sell their weapons within their own circle, he adds.
Moreover, the arms dealers, in the garb of their legal business, often indulge in the sale of illegal weapons. A bullet costs between Rs25 and Rs100, depending on its grade and make.
Chinese arms and ammunition have also made their availability felt as, these days, the Chinese 30-bore pistols are available at a cost slightly higher than that of the locally manufactured pistols. According to the figures obtained from the Home Department, during the last five years, about one million pieces of firearms have been registered.
Home Department officials said that the figures regarding such weapons had also been sought by the Governor’s House recently.
However, when the query regarding an estimate of the illegal weapons present in the city was put before several senior government officials and police officers, every one of them opted for a guess.
Citing rampant use of weapons in various crimes, Mr Sharfuddin Memon said that one could easily assess the extent of weapons proliferation from an analysis of the crime rate and pattern in the city, right from the mobile phone and vehicle snatching to the house and bank robberies. All sorts of weapons appeared to have been used in these crimes.
About five years back, a drive had been launched across the city and a certain amount of illegal weapons was recovered from criminals. However, the drive had by and large proved an exercise in futility.
One more aspect of the free movement of weapons is the alteration in vehicles. Criminal elements have succeeded in changing the structure of a vehicle, particularly the widely used motorcycle (125) to conceal arms.
Sharing his experience, an SHO says that such an alternation was found to have been made in the motorcycle’s seat to create a cavity in which a pistol can be hidden in a way that no one could suspect presence of the weapon there.
The law-enforcement personnel unaware of such tactics could easily be fooled by the criminals during checking, the SHO remarked.
A statistical analysis of the illegal arms recovered during the period January-December 2005 by the CPLC shows that 3,068 cases had been reported at 85 police stations across the city.
Citing the highest risk areas, the data shows that 150 cases of illegal arms were reported at the Kalakot police station in Lyari followed by 117 at Baghdadi police station, 114 at Chawkiwara police station, 104 at Ferozabad police station and 95 at Kalri police station.
