KARACHI, May 8: Registration of FIR for the theft or snatching of mobile phone sets has been made optional as people in most cases appeared reluctant to lodge cases, making police unable to deal with the issue properly for want of necessary data. Police in the metropolis decided to relax the condition of mandatory registration of FIR in street crimes.

People have been asked to inform ‘Madadgar 15’ about an incident of snatching/theft of their mobile phone sets or cash for help. If a person wants to lodge FIR, he may ask the Madadgar officials on ‘15’ that he was willing to lodge the case. In such a case, the complainant would be contacted later by the officials of the police station concerned.

Generally, people do not have trust in police as they believe that once they are deprived of a mobile phone or cash, the same cannot be recovered by police. Rather, they think, the police may create trouble on the pretext of investigation.

A doctor, who was robbed of his mobile phone and cash, told Dawn that he and his father had been looted of their cash the same day at different locations.

The doctor, who requested not to be named said: “I stopped my car at Gizri traffic signal and suddenly two armed men forcibly entered into the vehicle. They took me at gunpoint and robbed me of my mobile phone set, cash and some other belongings. They did not take away the SIM of my cell phone or any of the identification documents. The same day, my father was intercepted by two armed men on Burnes Road and deprived him of his cash.”

The doctor said that he had informed Madadgar 15, but decided not to register an FIR because no positive outcome was expected. He said he just wanted to inform the police that such incidents were taking place at that point.

Keeping in view the plight of people, the police decided to ascertain the gravity of situation as they did not believe in the figures collected so far as reflecting the true picture.

According to the statistics prepared by the police, during the first four months of this year, police registered 595 FIRs about snatching of mobile phone sets and cash. In all the cases, 1,163 mobile phones were reported snatched. Seventy-seven cases of them have been detected, 174 suspects arrested and 184 cell phones recovered.

City police chief Tariq Jamil did not think that the figures reflected the ground reality. He quoted the statistics collected by the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee, and said that 3,456 incidents of mobile phone snatching and stealing were reported. Only 1,537 cases of cell phone and cash snatching were reported from various areas of the city. “I believe these figures may be a half of the total crime as people generally do not report the incidents and we cannot have the true picture of the street crime situation,” he added.

He said the police bracketed the incidents of snatching of cash, belongings, cell phones in streets and at shops in the ‘street crime’. “The issue of street crime is our prime focus and we are taking different measures to curb this menace,” he said firmly.

“I have issued directives to Madadgar 15 to register public complaints about street crime and note down all possible details. If someone does not want to tell more details, he should not be pressed. I have also issued instructions to officials at Madadgar to ask a complainant if he wants to lodge an FIR. If a victim is not interested, he should not be contacted again,” he added.

Mr Jamil said that the exercise would help police get a true picture of street crime and prepare a data.

“We are planning to deploy special squads on motorcycles, many of its personnel in civvies, in different areas,” he said, adding that the exercise might prove effective as policemen on bikes could easily chase suspects in narrow lanes.

Mr Jamil said that the police had been taking different steps but the mobile phone companies were not playing their due role by extending their cooperation to the law enforcement agencies.

He recalled that some suspected cell phone snatchers in custody had told interrogators they had sold the looted sets in the Electronic Market, Saddar. They appeared ready to identify the buyers and their shops in the market, but police faced great trouble in arresting them without the cooperation of the dealers association, KEDA. “Now the Association’s representatives have assured us of their cooperation,” he added.

Besides, the CPLC had established the complaint centre and it was connected with the mobile phone operators’ room. According to CPLC chief Sharfuddin Memon, IMEI number of a stolen set is obtained and forwarded to all the operators to inform the new user that he was using a stolen set.

The CPLC is also working in close liaison with the Madadgar 15 and all the complaints lodged with the latter are forwarded to the CPLC where a complete data of the crime is being maintained.