ISLAMABAD: A Safe City Islamabad camera installed at a metro station was stolen by unidentified persons.

However, the incident remained unnoticed despite being filmed by the surveillance system.

Over the incident, a case has been registered at the Industrial Area police station under Section 379 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

A police official said that it was a face recognition camera worth Rs90,000 installed at the Faizabad Metro Station. The surveillance team at the Safe City Authority Islamabad found the camera offline on April 19.

After several days, the technical teams visited the spot when the camera remained continuously offline and found it missing from the location where it had been installed. The previous footage captured through the camera before it went offline was examined, which revealed that a man had stolen it.

The Safe City took nine days to ascertain that the camera had been stolen, and the case was registered on April 28.

In April 2024, two Safe City cameras worth Rs1.1 million, installed on the Koral flyover near a police station, were found inoperative on the night of March 31. The monitoring room stopped receiving footage from the two cameras, but at that time no serious action was taken until April 5.

In September 2023, thieves stole a Safe City Project camera worth Rs120,000 installed a furlong away from the Margalla police station. The camera was stolen on September 2; however, the authority came to know about the theft after two weeks.

The camera was found inoperative on the night of September 2, as no footage was received from it. However, even then, no efforts were made by the police to check the camera except writing a report and verbally communicating the matter to a concerned senior officer.

On October 24, 2025, thieves stole Islamabad Safe City Authority equipment installed at a distance of one and a half kilometres from the Karachi Company police station.

The theft incident came to light when a Safe City technician visited the G-9/2 area and found the lock of a pole installed at Gali No 11 broken. He inspected the pole and the equipment installed there and found a battery worth Rs35,000 missing.

Last year, the federal government approved a project to extend the Safe City surveillance coverage to approximately 90 percent areas of the capital for Rs7.4 billion.

The amount is Rs7.499 billion, including Rs7.234 billion for technology cost, Rs13.6 million for staff salaries, Rs31.164 million for utility expenses, Rs144.684 million for consultancy, Rs1.4 million for ISP connectivity, and Rs74.250 million for contingency.

The Islamabad Safe City Project was launched in 2016 at a cost of Rs6 billion and was transferred to Islamabad police in 2019.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2026