RAHIM YAR KHAN: Traders have expressed concern over the increasing incidents of robbery in different areas of the city.

In the most recent incident, two dacoits wearing helmets robbed a grocery shop on Faisal Road at around 7pm on Monday and managed to escape. They also fired gun shots on customers and passerby during the robbery after looting around Rs1 million and taking its owner Abdul Latif hostage.

The administration had made big claims that after the Katcha operation the area had been made crime free, however, four robberies were reported in the district headquarters, while five incidents were reported in Khanpur tehsil. Residents and traders believed that after the elimination of notorious dacoit gangs from Katcha areas, dacoits were now operating in cities.

A member of the Rahim Yar Khan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RYKCCI) and Anjuman Tajran leader Chaudhry Shoukat Hayat told this correspondent that the government orders to close shops at 8pm had created many problems. He claimed that loadshedding at around this time had facilitated criminals to operate freely.

DPO claims robbery, theft cases have decreased

He said that a delegation of traders met with the City and Saddar DSPs on Tuesday regarding the deteriorating law-and-order situation in urban areas. He claimed that both DSPs admitted that there was lack of coordination between the police and traders. Commenting on the Safe City Project, he said that CCTV cameras could see wrong parking, lack of seat belts and bikers without helmets to collect fines but they could not monitor criminals.

Talking to Dawn, DPO Irfan Ali Sammon said the two dacoits involved in the Khanpur bakery incident were killed during an encounter. He claimed that robbery cases had declined from 73 to 34 in the last quarter of 2025 to 2026. Similarly, burglary and theft cases, which were 230 in the last quarter of 2025, had decreased to 159 in the same period of 2026.

He said that in the Katcha area of RYK, police killed 68 dacoits, while 104 were injured during operations. A total of 325 dacoits surrendered themselves before the police and out of these, 25 were ring leaders. A total of Rs155 million headmoney was on these 25 criminals belonging to 14 different dacoit gangs, Sammon added.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2026