KARACHI, Oct 22: As the festival of Eidul Fitr is approaching fast, the police have accelerated their pace of extorting money from innocent citizens at every nook and corner of the metropolis.
Their main target appeared to be youths on motorcyclists, who roamed around various shopping centres and bazaars to have fun.
Police mobile vans can be seen on various crowded places and officials can be seen chatting with youths on motorcycles instead of keeping an eye on unscrupulous elements.
Despite the fact that bandits in most incidents strike their targets on traffic signals in presence of police.
One of the major factors of the escalating incidents of street crimes is being attributed to slackness of police officials from their duty.
Since January to October 20 this year, more than 40,000 cellular phones have either been snatched at gunpoint or stolen. According to the CPLC, 14,935 cellphones were snatched at gunpoint and 2,834 got stolen.
As far as carjacking incidents are concerned, a total number of 8,801 incidents took place across the city during the first three quarters this year from January to September.
According to the statistics, 978 incidents on an average were committed every month and more than 32 people daily on an average were deprived of either their cars or motorcycles.
The data shows that 3,574 four-wheelers and 5,227 two-wheelers were snatched or stolen from various localities in the city during the last nine months.
Besides, police on the pretext of snap checking parked their mobile vans at dark places in Gulberg, North Nazimabad, Landhi, Korangi, Liaquatabad, and other towns. They especially stop motorcyclists and ask them relevant papers. Even the papers are complete; they demand money on the pretext of 'Eidi'.
People said that the police officials spent their time to extort money from innocent youths and they failed to check robbers as the street robberies were already on the rise.
The traffic police have not lagged behind the district police as their drive to lift motorcycles and cars from the so-called 'no-parking zones' has gained momentum especially in Saddar.
Similarly, the district police are present at various intersections and roads in the city to check motorcyclists. They stop motorcyclists and ask them about relevant papers and licence.
Although they do not have powers to impose a challan, they allegedly harass motorcyclists to extort money from them.
People in general complained that they were not let off by the police unless they allegedly greased their palms.
The police officials allow motorcyclists to go after they get illegal gratification.
The time consumed in dealing with motorcyclists, could be spent on keeping any eye on suspicious elements to check criminal incidents that have gained momentum during the final days of Ramazan.
Traffic police officials do not bother to stop drivers from parking vehicles on ‘no-parking zones’ rather they encourage them to park there so that they could lift vehicles to generate money.
Besides, their focal areas of 'no-parking zones' are the markets including Tariq Road, Jama Cloth Market, Hyderi Market, Clifton, etc. The traffic police lift cars and motorcycles from the no-parking zones and take them to the relevant traffic police kiosk.
They impose fine on drivers of cars or motorcyclists which vary from Rs150 to Rs500.
An affected motorcyclist, Fazal Ahmed said that he went to Cooperative Market and parked his motorcycle on Abdullah Haroon Road.
"I asked a traffic policeman standing nearby that should I park here. He nodded in affirmative. When I returned after shopping, I found my motorbike missing."
He went to a traffic police check post where his motorcycle was present.
He said, I told them that I had asked a traffic cop and then I parked there but they imposed a fine of Rs150 saying that they picked up my motorbike from a no-parking zone.
He claimed that there was no sign of 'no-parking' where he parked his motorcycle.
He maintained that the traffic police official who was on duty should have stopped me parking my motorbike but he never did so.
