ISLAMABAD: The registration of cases in criminal activities in the federal capital decreased by 10 per cent in 2022, as the police entertained 86 per cent of the complaints compared to 96pc in 2021.

Details and data collected from different sources, including police stations, showed that the police received 13,093 complaints about dacoity, robbery, auto-theft and theft incidents in 2022.

However, the police registered 11,332 cases (FIRs) - 86.55pc - while the remaining complaints remained unattended.

In 2021, as many as 10,200 complaints about such criminal activities were received by the police and out of these 9,816 (96.23pc) cases were registered. The percentage of the cases’ registration from January 1 to May 20, 2022, was above 95pc, but after May 21 it decreased and by the end of the year stood at 86.55pc.

Registration of cases of dacoity - considered a heinous crime - was recorded at 49.42pc as there were 87 complaints lodged and 43 FIRs registered by the police.

Likewise, registration of burglary and theft cases remained at 79.45pc with the police receiving 4,493 complaints and registering 3,570 FIRs. The registration of snatching cases stood at 83.60pc as the police registered 1,392 FIRs against 1,665 complaints.

Similarly, the registration of vehicle theft cases was 86.83pc as there were 828 complaints and 719 FIRs registered while the registration of motorcycle thefts was 90.40pc - 3,792 complaints and 3,428 FIRs registered.

Moreover, 80pc of the robbery cases were registered as there were 2,228 complaints and 2,180 FIRs.

The data showed that 23 complaints of dacoity remained unattended at Rural Zone followed by 13, seven and one at Saddar, Industrial Area and City zones. Besides, 507, 262, 87 and 67 complaints of burglaries and thefts remained unattended at Saddar, Rural, City and Industrial Area zones.

Similarly, 92, 88, 55 and 38 complaints of snatching remained unattended at Industrial Area, Saddar, City and Rural zones of the police while 43, 40, 25 and one complaints regarding vehicle theft remained unattended at City, Saddar, Rural and Industrial Area zones.

A senior police officer said criminals remained unpunished in case of non-registration of cases. Moreover, in case of non-registration of a case, police will not investigate the incident and neither arrest the criminal involved in it, he added.

Despite repeated attempts, Inspector General of Police Akbar Nasir Khan and in-charge of the Police Public Relations Branch DIG Headquarters Awais Ahmad were not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2023