ISLAMABAD: An average of two criminal activities per hour was reported to the capital police in March.

A total of 1,698 incidents of crime occurred during the month.

However, registration of case was not encouraging as out of the total 1,698, only 961 cases were registered, police officers said, adding that the ratio of case registration during the month of March was 56.5pc.

Crime rate has been increasing sharply in the capital as 1,480 cases were reported during January, followed by 1,517 in February, the police officers said, adding that out of the total, police registered 896 cases in January and 1,006 in February.

The ratio of case registration in January was 60.5pc and 66.3pc in February. During the month of March, 12 burglaries were reported to the police, out of which eight occurred in the Rural Zone and two each in Saddar and Industrial Area zones, the officers said.

A case was also registered with the Counter-Terrorism Department on March 18 against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and other party leaders on various charges.

Out of the 12 cases, one involved violence in which a man was injured, while three were burglaries, six were street/highway robberies and two were vehicle snatching incidents, the officer added.

Besides, 414 robberies were reported to the capital police during the month and out of the total, only 249 cases were registered with ratio of 60.1pc, the officers said, adding that out of the total 414, 19 were violent robberies including a robbery-cum murder, 10 robberies with gunfire injuries to victims, three robberies with other injuries to the victims and three robberies by people disguised as officials.

There were also 15 house robberies, 14 shop robberies, 305 street/highway robberies, nine vehicle robberies and 49 motorcycle robberies among the 414 robberies, they said, adding that 138 robberies were reported from Industrial Area Zone, followed by 134 from Rural Zone, 115 robberies from Saddar Zone and 27 from City Zone.

Likewise, 227 snatching incidents commonly known as street crime were also reported to police and out of the total, 117 were registered and the case registration ratio was 51.5pc, the officers said, adding that out of the total 227 incidents, 86 were reported from Industrial Area Zone, followed by 61 from Rural Zone, 58 from Saddar Zone and 22 from City Zone.

Out of the total 227 snatching incidents, 222 were street crime, two vehicle snatching and four snatching after abduction of victims, the officers added.

About 456 incidents of burglaries and theft were also reported to police in March and out of the total, police registered 186 such first information reports (FIR) and the ratio of case registration was 40.7pc, the officers said, adding that out of the total 155 such cases were reported from Saddar Zone, followed by 129 from Rural Zone, 100 from Industrial Area Zones and 72 from City Zone.

The ratio of overall case registration during the current year was 60.9pc, they said.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2023