KARACHI: Expressing anger over the increasing incidence of street crime in the city, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday directed police to launch a targeted operation against criminals and their supporters involved in street crimes.

“This [effort] must be sincere, decisive and result-oriented,” he said while presiding over a meeting on law and order with a special focus on street crime in Karachi.

The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Inspector General of Police Sindh A.D. Khowaja, Karachi police chief Mushtaq Mahar, Counter-Terrorism Department head Sanaullah Abbasi, Principal Secretary to CM Naveed Kamran Baloch, Home Secretary Shakeel Mangnijo, Commissioner Ejaz Khan and others.

The chief minister said he was not happy with the facts and figures of street crime presented in the Thursday meeting of the Sindh cabinet. “This is why I have convened a follow-up meeting to review the street crime rate and devise a pragmatic strategy to crush street criminals.”

The city police chief presented 15-day comparative figures of street crime as collected by the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee. He said that some 19 four-wheelers were snatched in the 15-day period in 2015, which came down to seven in 2016, but went upward to 18 this year.

Discussing the theft of cars and other four-wheelers, he said in the same period in 2015, 92 four-wheelers were stolen; in 2016 the figure came down slightly to 73 and in 2017 it came further down to 52.

He said the snatching of motorcycles in the 15-day period in 2015 was 152 and in 2016 it came down to 114 and in 2017 it has been recorded at 65. Discussing motorcycle theft, he said in 2015, 592 motorcycles were stolen, the figure was 762 in 2016 and 734 in 2017.

He said 1,187 mobile phones were snatched in the 15-day period of 2015, in 2016 the number was 791 and this year it was 530.

On this, the chief minister said though the figures had come down but the fact remained that street crime persisted in the city and complaints of citizens were genuine.

The meeting was informed that 13 police stations were most affected in terms of mobile phone snatching, and snatching and theft of cars and motorcycles.

In 2016, some 1,548 street criminals were arrested and charge-sheeted; of them 14 were convicted and three were acquitted. At present 1,082 were in jail and 449 were on bail.

IGP Khowaja claimed that there was a link between street crimes and drug addiction. Criminals mostly came from slum neighbourhoods.

He said the sanctioned strength for Karachi police was 39,589 against which 27,389 were posted/working, showing a shortfall of 12,200 policemen.

The chief minister allowed the IGP to fill the vacancies on merit.

The police officials said the population of New Delhi was 16 million and they had a force of 84,536 policemen with the ratio of one policeman for 198 people. New York is a city of 8.5m with 49,526 policemen with the ratio of 1:172. Lahore has population of 10.35m with 27,146 policemen at the rate of one policeman for 381 people.

The situation in Karachi is extremely poor. The city of 22m has 27,389 policemen, which means a poorly equipped policeman was there to guard 803 people, the meeting was told.

CM Shah said the ratio was not that bad in the city. “There may be some administrative issues which must be addressed properly.”

He asked the IGP to ensure installation of CCTV cameras on a ‘war-footing’ basis and order extensive patrolling in the affected areas. “The complainants must be urged through CPLC to pursue their cases.”

He ordered the IGP to develop close coordination among various wings of police and start vigorous targeted operations against street criminals.

“The operation should be properly worked out, focused and it should include action against the drug and land mafias. Make sure such mafias are crushed for good,” said the CM.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2017

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