RAWALPINDI: The year 2016 saw a surge in violent and property crimes, including kidnapping of women, sexual assaults, gang rapes, bank robberies and vehicle thefts. But the police are hopeful that there will be a reduction in all types of crimes in the new year.

According to statistics available with Dawn, the outgoing year witnessed a considerable increase in abduction of women though there was a slight reduction in kidnapping for ransom cases.

As many as 129 kidnapping of men, 403 kidnapping of women and six kidnapping for ransom cases were reported to the police compared to the 95 kidnapping, 398 kidnapping of women and 10 kidnapping for ransom cases in 2015.

Rape and gang rape cases increased from 32 in 2015 to 52 and gang rape cases from four to nine in 2016. An alarming increase in the child molestation cases was noticed with 85 such cases compared to 48 in 2015.

Police statistics show car and motorcycle snatching cases dropped to 532 in 2016 compared to 778 in 2015

Murder cases dropped to 229 from 249 in 2015 and attempted murders slightly decreased from 325 to 315 in 2016. However, there was an increase in assaults as 681 cases were reported to the police compared to 651 last year. In addition, 12 people were killed during robberies compared to 14 such incidents in 2015.

Of the 229 murders, 108 people were killed in the Saddar division, 72 in Potohar division and 49 in Rawal division.

Though there was an increase in bank robberies from just two last year to five in 2016, car and motorcycle snatching cases decreased to 532 against 778 in 2015.

The police attributed the reduction in the robbery, theft and burglary cases to the arrest of several gangs of criminals. However, the performance of the police regarding the recovery of goods taken away during robbery and theft incidents remained unsatisfactory.

The inspector general of the police (IGP) while chairing a crime meeting early in December also expressed displeasure over the Rawalpindi police performance regarding the recovery of stolen goods and murder investigations. The IGP was also not satisfied with the police crackdowns on proclaimed offenders and suspected criminals.

Burglary and theft cases dropped to 432 and 490, respectively, in 2016 against 525 and 599 in 2015.

The police figures showed an increase in the theft of vehicles from 108 in 2015 to 142 in 2016. However, there was a decrease in car theft as only 22 cars were taken away in 2016 compared to 566 in 2015. A considerable decrease of 258 cases of motorcycle theft was also reported compared to 754 last year.

The police crackdowns on illegal arms dropped to 1,218 from 1,414 in 2015. Besides, a considerable decrease in cases related to narcotics and gambling dens was also recorded. However, the total number of cases registered with the police in 2016 increased to 18,300 compared to 17,048 last year.

The year also saw 345 traffic accidents in which 160 people were killed and 392 others injured, the traffic police department said and attributed the increase in the fatal accidents to the violation of traffic rules, the manpower crisis in the police and bad traffic engineering.

The police are hopeful to see a reduction in all types of crimes in 2017, saying the department was working to improve the police image by establishing front desks, overcoming the shortage of staff and checking misuse of specialised elite force commandoes.

Published in Dawn December 31st, 2016