January 22, 2007	Monday	Muharram 02, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, Jan 21: The increasing number of street crimes being reported in the city belies police claims that crime cases were on the decline. Five robbers barged into a cable operator’s office in Pindora, on Thursday and snatched Rs20,000 from him, at gunpoint, said Rashid.

“I was sitting in my office along with my coworkers in the Pindora Market when five armed robbers, wearing masks, entered my office at 7.00pm,” Mr Rashid told Dawn.

The Pindora Market and nearby residential areas are no longer safe from robberies and the New Town police station, “has simply turned a blind eye to the bleak situation,” he protested.

Mr Rashid said he did not register his complaint at the nearby New Town Police Station as, according to him, the police officials there had failed to help previous robbery victims, so he had lost faith in them.

“When we complain to the police, they advise us to hire private security guards to protect our businesses,” he lamented.

Commercial areas in Pindora, Banni, Saidpur Road, Khayaban-i- Sir Syed and Satellite Town close down at 7.00pm because of the fear of armed robberies, which begin as soon after sunset.

Criticising the police, Mr Irshad, who runs a PCO in the Pindora Market and was deprived of Rs15,000 in case, five mobile phone sets and Rs4,000 worth of scratch cards on Friday, said, “the law enforcing agencies have miserably failed to provide protection to the common man.”

When he complained to the police he too was told, “hire private security guards.” He said his monthly income was only Rs10,000 so how could he afford to hire a security guard and questioned the police’s existence if they could not provide security to citizens.

In Khayaban-i-Sir Syed and Banni, the situation was so bad that the residents were afraid to go out for a walk, in the evenings, for fear of losing their mobile phones or cash.

Sohail Pasha, a counsellor from Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, said a gang of robbers in his constituency was so organised that they struck as soon as the police mobile left the area.

“So far the police has miserably failed to trace any robber in the area despite the alarming increase in the incidents of dacoities,” he added.

The situation in residential areas near police stations was no better and the newly-deployed mobile ‘Mujahid Force’ too had failed stopping street crimes.