KARACHI: Police’s Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) on Saturday claimed to have arrested two “bike lifters” whose around two dozen family members have also been involved in hijacking two-wheelers and have stolen around 2,000 motorbikes over the last several years in the metropolis.

The ACLC as part of its campaign against the rising theft of motorbikes has arrested two suspects — Sabir Khokhar, alias Kala, and Mohammed Ashraf Khokhar, said ACLC SSP Syed Asad Raza. “This gang of bikes-lifters is known as Khokhar Group,” said the officer.

He told Dawn that the arrested suspects originally belonged to Punjab and had settled in different parts of the metropolis. Initially, their elders were allegedly involved in this criminal activity and later on their children also became involved in it.

“Around 25 to 30 members of Khokhar Group are involved in bike-lifting,” said the officer, adding that during the last 10 years the gang had stolen between 1,500 and 2,000 motorbikes, which were subsequently sold in Balochistan as they had links with criminal elements in the Khuzdar area. Apart from hijacking motorbikes, this gang had also been involved in “safekeeping” of stolen motorbikes of other criminals and they got Rs4,000 to Rs5,000 per motorbike to this effect.

They were also arrested in the past several times and got released on bail from the courts concerned and started criminal activities again.

The SSP said the suspects had also used women to smuggle stolen motorbikes to Balochistan.

Criminal gang history

Mr Raza said that since the early 1990s, Khokhar relatives headed by Abdul Ghafoor Khokhar and his cousins, hailing from Jhelum district of Punjab, established a criminal gang in Karachi that started committing vehicular crime, initially targeting automobiles.

They were arrested by police in 2009 and prosecuted accordingly.

After release from jail, they quit carjacking and started targeting two-wheelers the city.

“Factors behind this shift are multiple,” said the officer.

Elaborating, Mr Raza said that motorcycles owing to weak security features, eg lock and key, installed by the manufacturers are more easily stolen than cars.

Besides, around 90 per cent of private car owners preferred to have trackers installed while motorcycles had no such feature.

“Last but not the least criminal justice officials have long adhered to a baby-gloves approach in dealing with criminals [who steal motorbikes], resulting in easy bailouts and acquittals,” said the ACLC chief.

Furthermore, less than 17pc of victims preferred to lodge FIRs of motorcycle thefts or snatching.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2018