LAHORE: Fifty-five motorcycles were reportedly lifted or snatched while several houses and citizens were robbed in various parts of the city on Friday.

The rising incidents of motorcycle theft have raised an alarm as there are reports that on average nearly 50 two-wheelers are being stolen daily from the provincial capital. Similarly, the theft incidents of batteries from the cars parked alongside the roads and streets are also going on unchecked.

A gang of thieves stole batteries from 13 parked cars in just one week in the jurisdiction of the Factory Area police while they also removed the side mirrors of the valuable vehicles, a police source said. He added that the robbers were targeting the cars parked on the service lane of the Ferozepur Road and many such incidents were reported near Ghazi Road, Main Bazaar Stop and Chungi Amar Sidhu. Police are reluctant to lodge cases in most of the incidents.

The similar crime incidents were also reported in many other parts of the city where the unidentified thieves took away batteries and side mirrors from the vehicles parked in the markets and streets.

In other incidents, thieves barged into the residence of one Naeem Ahmad, collected gold ornaments and other valuables and fled the scene with booty worth over Rs1.3m in the Defence-B police jurisdictions.

The two armed men held up one Ali at gunpoint in the Hanjarwal area and deprived him of Rs90,000. In Shahdara area, armed robbers snatched Rs25,000 from Hussain while a mobile phone and cash worth over Rs130,000 were snatched from Ghazanfar in Harbanspura.

The two armed men deprived Jamal of his belongings, including a mobile phone and cash worth over Rs75,000 in the Factory Area police precincts while a citizen Arshad Ali was robbed in the Kahna area when two armed men snatched from him his cell phone.

The motorcycles, cars and other vehicles were snatched and stolen from Yaki Gate, Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Estate, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Hanjarwal, Racecourse, Mozang, Factory Area, Green Town, Johar Town and Harbanspura areas.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2022