SWABI, Oct 2: The Swabi district witnessed a surge in crime rate in the first three quarters of the current year despite police claims that they arrested a large number of anti-social elements and recovered arms.

Police sources said given the spike in crime and killings in the district the police needed modern techniques to thwart criminal activities in the society.

The police arrested 1,666 outlaws till end of Sept 2010 compared to 983 arrests made in the corresponding period of the previous year, the sources said, adding, 267 Kalashnikovs and 478 Kalakovs were recovered in 2010 compared to 202 Kalashnikovs and 113 Kalakovs seized in 2009. The sources said the reason of increasing number of such heavy weapons going into the hands of people was that their licences could easily be acquired through influential and political figures who had strong links with the police.

The sources about 35 people were killed in different incidents only in the month of Ramazan. The incidents of car-lifting also increased manifold as the auto thieves had links with the car-lifters in the tribal regions.

The police said they had succeeded in breaking links between the car-lifters in tribal regions and those operating in the district. They said the different routes used by the car-lifters had also been fortified by deploying more personnel.

Similarly, the sources said the number of rifles seized in first nine months of the current year reached to 267 from 196 in the previous year, pistols from 2,075 to 2,897, hand grenades from 11 to 26. The po1ice also seized 1,584kg of charas in the period under review, up from 418kg recovered in 2009 while and quantity of seized opium increased from 64kg to 162kg.

The sources said most of the charas and opium were seized at Pehur checkpost located in Topi tehsil.

The sources said the seized contraband was being smuggled from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to Punjab via Topi, adding, smugglers also used the River Indus bed for crossing into the Punjab province.

The sources said the police also seized 30kg of heroin till Sept this year while only 474 grams of heroin was recovered in the same period last year.