KARACHI: Out-of-town visitors to the city would once disdainfully remark that the city’s residents treated traffic lights as a mere suggestion and not as rules. However, city’s residents gripped by paranoia, fearful of motorcyclists or beggars standing by their window have abandoned traffic rules not just to save time but also to stop their cellphones from being snatched.

The paranoia isn’t without reason. According to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, 23,740 cellphones were stolen in 2011 and another 21,238 cellphones were stolen in 2012. Nearly half of those were ‘snatched’.

‘Snatchings’ — as police officers insist muggings at gunpoint must be called — are routine at traffic signals. It’s a pretty standard pattern: a man with a gun shows up and points it at you, asks for your wallet and cell phone, and melts away while you’ve lost tens of thousands of rupees and valuable identification documents. Victims of muggings appear shaken up and tense in the first few days, exceedingly jumpy by the next week, and then sink into a despondent acceptance of the fact that they can’t avoid being out in public.

Ask anyone in Karachi — a co-worker, relative or friend — and they will narrate stories of how they have been mugged not just once, but several times, in different parts of the city. The accounts range from the ludicrous (‘I was mocked for having only a few cigarettes on me’) to the downright disturbing (‘The guy’s hands were shaking so much I thought he’d shoot.’)

Anecdotal evidence suggests that muggings mostly happen when stuck at a traffic signal or in a jam. This is disputed by the ADIG Traffic Police Dr Qamar Rizvi who, when questioned, said it “was the first I’m hearing of this” and strenuously asserted that the traffic police had nothing to do with protecting citizens from criminals. While the sense of panic at signals and in traffic jams is apparent in the city — an attack on a seminary in Gulshan-i-Iqbal last month meant that the Gulshan Chowrangi route was blocked by drivers trying desperately to turn cars back to safety —Dr Rizvi says people “break traffic rules of their own will, not because there’s a jam.”

But security adviser Norbert Almeida, who provides real-time updates on crime in the city on social media websites, notes that traffic jams — whether caused by protests or violence in the area — have made people far more concerned than they were in the past. “People are trying to be more aware of it. They’re looking for links to information and share news about traffic jams as well. This was not the case a year or two ago.”

To deter muggers, Karachi’s citizens have developed their own defence mechanisms: women avoid carrying conspicuous designer bags, frequently wear imitation jewellery to weddings, only putting it on when entering a wedding venue, instead of throughout the route. According to Sara, a banker, (not her real name); “I never keep my money or cards in my handbag. It only has enough money to ‘satisfy’ a mugger, but not enough to really hurt me.” Over the past two years, Sara has stopped wearing gold jewellery. “I observed that the crime rate of muggings in public spaces was high, but that in DHA and Clifton it was even higher,” she explains. She has also noted that in the past few years, “People have stopped buying gold jewellery and buy silver plated jewellery instead.” Like other fearful residents, Sara says she “never answers phone calls when driving” to avoid her phone being spotted by a mugger in traffic, and avoids going into quiet areas.

Sara isn’t alone. Women have started employing techniques their grandmothers may have once used, such as stuffing money in their lingerie and pockets, somewhat safe in the realization that they will probably not be bodily searched by muggers. Others carry a ‘cover’ cell phone — not a cheap one, since muggers have wizened up to this trick — and hide the real phone on their person or in the car.

But cellphones are still being stolen. According to Rameez at Good Luck Communication, a store at Boat Basin that sells high-end phones and digital devices to an upscale clientele, “Sixty-five per cent of our customers are those whose cellphones have been stolen and are looking for replacements — either a cheaper phone, or one in the same price range as the original.” The store, along with others in the area, also offers customers the facility to backup the data on their phones, and encourages that users protect their phones with passwords.

“There is a sense of concern that’s risen,” Almeida says. “If you look at crime statistics, they’ve really climbed. What’s alarming is the high number of thefts of motorcycles and cellphones — these are in the 22,000s approximately. These are massive numbers.” Almeida points out that people are stuffing cash in their socks, keep an alternative cellphone and refuse to carry their original NIC or carry out any cash transactions to avoid being mugged with a large amount of money or original identity documents.

“What the biggest concern is that many people are considering keeping a weapon in their car or at home,” he notes. However, Almeida advises against this, given that “99% of the time people have never fired a weapon or don’t know how to handle it.”

“It raises the risk profile and gives a false sense of security,” he cautions.