Peaceful Muharram good beginning for new year?
However surveyed on the whole, 2008 wasn’t a year to remember with four suicide attacks in the capital city alone, the most horrendous being the Marriott hotel blast followed by explosions at Danish Embassy, attacks on police personnel guarding the Lal Masjid anniversary and the office of Anti Terrorist Squad in Police Lines Headquarters. A device also exploded near a hotel in Model Town Sihala. The broad daylight assassination of Maj-Gen (retired) Faisal Alvi, former head of the army’s elite commando forces – SSG, also was a most daring and horrifying act.
The last quarter of the year did witness some decline but over all the year gave an all time high record in crime incidence. Murder, kidnapping, auto-theft, robberies, burglaries and drug trafficking remained on top on the list of crime incidence. A slight decline was reported in attempted murder and fatal accidents.
A total of 4,371 unlawful acts were reported during January to December in which 3,512 were traced compared to 3298 incidents last year of which 2,620 had been traced. According to police 116 murders took place in Islamabad as compared to 109 during 2007. The police succeeded to trace 84 in 2008, while 80 were traced in 2007. Incidents of attempted murder during last year stood at 126 against 135 in previous year. During 2008, 320 robberies, 163 burglaries, and 243 theft incidents took place in different parts of the city and out of the total, 147 robberies, 83 burglaries and 217 theft incidents were traced. In 2007, 222 robberies, 145 burglaries, and 187 theft incidents took place in the capital.
Similarly, during the year 828 vehicles – 602 cars, 119 other vehicles and 107 motorcycles were either snatched or stolen from different part of the city. The police succeeded to trace 124 cars, nine other vehicles, and five motorcycles, besides impounding 112 tampered chassis number cars and other vehicles.
During the year 119 kidnapping and rape incident were reported with the police, compared with 77 last year. Out of the total the police traced 117 cases during 2008 and 76 in 2007. Twenty cases of kidnapping from ransom took place in the city during 2008 and all were traced, compared with 12 during 2007 all traced.
During 2008, 114 fatal and 131 non-fatal accidents took place, compared with 133 fatal and 125 non-fatal in 2007.
Police claimed to have arrested 12,173 accused and recovered cash, gold ornaments and other valuables worth Rs239,760,000 but the number of accused who escaped arrest is reported to be double this number. Recovery of looted property is also put at half of the total amount.
Police blame the increase in crime on unemployment, economic backwardness, over population, illiteracy and the inadequacy of the police force.
Despite mounted surveillance at exit and entry pointes of the city all kinds of criminals are able to enter and leave the city at will.
The motive behind most of the murder and attempt murder cases were property and family disputes and took place in city’s rural areas where most criminals find easy refuge from the law.
The police have failed to control the crime against property though the modus operandi of the criminals, their preferred time for house robbery, burglary and the time to take away the booty outside from the city are all in police knowledge. Likewise, the time and area for snatching and sealing vehicles, and driving them away from the city is also known. No doubt the criminals are more clever than the police personnel who are mostly villagers and do not possess the modern equipment which the criminals have, still with the knowledge the police have can be helpful in curbing crime if applied with honesty and a sense of duty.
Protection only for high and mighty
Ahmed Hassan Dani, a renowned archaeologist, in one of his books describes: “The city wall surrounded the habitation of common men. ... During the Sikh period its extent was delimited by General Avitabile, the Sikh Governor, who built a mud wall surrounding the city. Under the British nearly the whole of the enclosure wall had been built of pucca brick.”
The Sikh and British rulers built walls to protect habitation of common men. But times have changed. The chief minister of the province is restricted to his heavily guarded office and residence.
People in the Frontier province are vulnerable to attacks by suicide bombers, militants and kidnappers. Only in the past one year, over 530 people lost their lives in 475 acts of terrorism.
Instead of ensuring security of the terrorised people, security measures that the security forces take in the provincial capital make the life of the common man, who is hit hard by inflation, energy and fuel crises, even more miserable.
The common man is left to strive on city’s congested, dilapidated roads where traffic jams often test the nerves of the drivers.
One main road passing through the city is almost blocked when it nears the cantonment area where walls and barricades stop them from using well-maintained spacious roads of the cantonment. Military Police personnel keep directing the traffic to use the others, which create often traffic jams and waste time of the motorists.
Peshawar’s social demography has changed drastically; first due to influx of Afghan refugees in a large number and now due to internally displaced people from the conflict-hit tribal region. The people from other parts of the province come for jobs and education to the provincial metropolis. The haphazard increase in city’s population and ill-planned constructions and encroachments have disfigured the provincial capital.
The few roads are not enough for the ever-growing number of vehicles, and closure of main roads passing through the cantonment area due to security reasons has added to the problems of the motorists.
The problems of the motorists increase manifold when the provincial assembly is in session. The high security measures to protect the legislators on that particular day make a common man realise that his life is not as important as that of their representatives in the provincial assembly.
The car park outside the Peshawar High Court, nearby the PA building, is shifted that day to another location, which results in inconvenience for those who come for court hearings.
One irritated motorist suggests that if there is so high security risk when a PA session is held then either they should not hold it in the first place or impose curfew that day. It will save people from a lot of inconvenience, he says.
The people in the provincial capital are irritated with how the government functionaries have disconnected themselves from the people by walls and erecting barricades and the citizens are exposed to attacks and kidnappings in broad daylight.
Interestingly, there are some cemented barricades outside the wall of the newly-built provincial assembly building. Whether it is enough to protect the assembly from attacks is one thing but people have found a use for these security barricades. They have started using it as public toilets.
Action speaks louder than words!