KARACHI, March 18: Twenty eight vehicles a day on average were taken away at different localities in the metropolis during February, bringing the total number of hijacked/stolen vehicles to 1,671 in the first two months of this year, the police sources said.
Bandits took away 308 four-wheelers and 477 two-wheelers during last month as compared with 418 cars and 450 motorcycles in the corresponding month of 2001. The statistics showed a decline of 9.57 per cent in February last in the carjacking and motorcycle lifting incidents.
However, the recovery rate of the four-wheelers was 41 per cent and two-wheelers was 27 per cent, the police source said adding that they recovered 149 cars and 139 motorcycles.
In January 2002, the bandits took away 886 vehicles — 330 cars and 556 motorbikes — in the metropolis, which comes to 28.58 vehicles a day on average.
The sources said Gulshan-i-Iqbal remained the worst affected area as the bandits hijacked 18 cars and 16 motorcycles there. Sixteen car theft incidents were reported in Ferozabad police limits alone followed by Gulshan-i-Iqbal where bandits stole 15 cars.
New Karachi and Kharadar police stations limits witnessed 12 incidents of motorcycle theft incidents followed by 11 in Azizabad.
The most vulnerable areas where the cases of carjacking were at their peak in February, included Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Ferozabad, Gulzar-i-Hijri, Clifton, Gulistan-i-Johar, Ferozabad, Darakhshan, Buffer Zone, Preedy, Artillery Maidan, and New Karachi.
The statistics showed that 59 per cent motorcycles were stolen and 41 per cent were taken away at gunpoint only in the month of February last.
The rule of the motorcycle-lifters remained intact in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Nazimabad, Azizabad, Buffer Zone, New Karachi, Kharadar, Orangi Town, North Nazimabad, Mithadar, Ferozabad, Korangi and Gulzar-i-Hijri.
The most favourite vehicle for the bandits remained Suzuki and the colour was white in February like in other months, the police sources said. Toyota was the second most popular among the bandits. They were least interested in black colour. However, Grey colour remained their second most favourite choice also in the last month as was in previous months. It appeared that red, blue and green colour cars were also taken away when the bandits did not find their colour of choice.
The bandits preferred Saturdays to commit their criminal activities and their criminal activities were at peak in the first week of the last month. They focussed on the model 2001 of Suzuki (Mehran, Khyber and Margalla) and Toyota Corolla. The models 2000 and 2002 vehicles were followed by the model 2001.
The Honda-70 motorcycle remained the prime choice for the bandits as they took away 310 Honda-70 motorbikes out of total 477. The second most favourite motorbike was Honda-125 and then comes Yamaha 100. Bandits chose to pick model 2001, 2000 and 2002 motorcycles as they were least interested in models 1998, 1997 and so on.
The police sources said that the bandits increased their carjacking activities during 6pm and midnight last month. The minimum cases of carjacking were reported during midnight and 6am.
As far as incidents of car theft are concerned, such incidents mostly happened between 8am and 11pm.
Bandits began their motorcycle hijacking and lifting activities around 8am and suspended them around 11pm. The peak hours of motorcycle hijacking/lifting were 4pm till 6pm and 8pm till 10pm.