ISLAMABAD: The crime rate has increased during the last couple of months as eight to 10 criminal activities are taking place daily in the capital, and most of them are not reported to the police, sources told Dawn.

A senior police officer told Dawn on condition of anonymity that though robberies and theft were reported to the police, victims did not report in most cases due to the cumbersome police procedure.

The victims have to visit police stations several times only to get FIRs registered, he said, adding the delaying tactics to entertain complaints and hold investigations were other issues which only increased victims’ miseries.

As a result, the victims, especially of street crime, avoid reporting the incident to the police, the officer added.

Umair Qureshi, a resident of G-6, told Dawn that his house was burgled on Saturday night, but the Aabpara police registered an FIR after 24 hours on Sunday.

He said the burglars made off with cash and valuables worth over Rs1.5million from his house.

The valuables included gold ornaments they had purchased for his sister, whose marriage was scheduled to take place soon, he said.

“We left our house at 8:30pm on Saturday for shopping. When we returned at 11pm, we found the house burgled,” he said.

He called Rescue 15 and in response the police reached there along with forensic experts, including specialists who collected fingerprints. A complaint was also lodged for registration of the FIR over the crime.

However, the police took 24 hours to register the case, and during this period, they even tried to ignore the complaint, Mr Qureshi stated, adding that the experts found some suspicious fingerprints from the house.

Quoting the Aabpara police, Mr Qureshi said the police had sent the fingerprints to National Database and Registration Authority which would take two weeks to verify and identify the fingerprints.

Since then there is no contact with the police over the update of their efforts regarding investigation, he added.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2018