KARACHI: After failing to curb growing street crime through regular force, the police authorities on Tuesday decided to task the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) with the job while warning the station house officers (SHOs) that they may face suspension and transfer if the situation in their areas worsens.

The decision was taken at a meeting, which was presided over by Sindh IG Police A.D. Khowaja, held at the Central Police Office.

In this regard, SIU SSP Farooq Awan was appointed as focal person who would coordinate with the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) to design a comprehensive strategy and plan for active policing against street crime.

The decision came after the CPLC recently shared its findings with the media identifying 60 places in the metropolis where the incidents of street crime, particularly snatching of mobile phones, have increased alarmingly. The number of street crime incidents surged in the last quarter of 2016. A total of 34,137 mobile phones were snatched or stolen across the city last year.

Apart from assigning the task of curbing street crime to the specialised unit of police, the Sindh police chief also issued directives for consulting senior officials of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), mobile phone companies and law-enforcement agencies to plan technological support for active policing against street crime.

Database of blocked phones

“At the same time, the meeting decided to develop a software for database of those cellphones, which are blocked through their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number after snatching or theft,” said an official statement issued after the meeting.

“The installation of quality closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and proper lighting system at busy markets, commercial areas and hospitals [was] also planned at the meeting that could help police surveillance.”

Despite the ongoing Rangers-led Karachi ‘operation’, launched in September 2013, the law-enforcement agencies have so far failed to control street crime as significantly as other crimes such as kidnapping for ransom and murder.

The situation started worsening in the last weeks of 2016 drawing the attention of the provincial authorities, which directed the Sindh IGP at the 19th Apex Committee meeting earlier this month to carry out a vigorous operation against street criminals, drug mafia and land mafia.

At the meeting, held on Jan 2, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had also highlighted the need to make some amendments to the relevant laws in order to send cases of street crimes to the antiterrorism courts for trial. He asked the Rangers and police to sit together to plan an operation against drug mafia and street criminals and present a report at the next meeting, which will be held next month.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2017