LAHORE, Dec 4: Recovery of stolen and snatched cars and arresting automobiles crimes have always been a daunting task for the Punjab police.
Figures obtained by Dawn from the statistical wing of the Punjab police show that more than 133,574 cars of all models are reported to have been stolen or driven away at gunpoint from all over the country during the last two decades.
Of them, 86,574 cars are reported to have been snatched or stolen only from Karachi where, according to the latest reports, at least 28 vehicles of all types are stolen every day.
The remaining 47,000 cars are said to have been taken away from rest of the country. Lahore is the second city after Karachi from where the maximum number of vehicles is stolen or snatched. It is somewhere between five and 12 vehicles a day on the average.
Police sources say that compilation of the car lifting record started in 1981. They claim that there was almost no concept of car stealing before the 80s. There was a relatively smaller number of cars in the major cities of the Punjab and other parts of the country before the 80s.
Sources said car stealing cases were reported after months and in some cases years. Thus it was easy to trace a stolen car or make security arrangements in the late 70s and the early 80s.
Different gangs of car thieves busted during the last 15 years show that some 12 people are considered to be the kings of car thieves. They all are residents of the tribal areas and deal in buying and selling stolen cars after tampering with their engine and chassis numbers.
The following are their names and addresses:
Jan Syed, Syed Ameer, Ameer Gul Pathan and Haji Zevar Khan, residents of Raza Khel, Darra Aadam Khel; Amanat Ali Khan, Slamat Khan and Niamat Khan, three brothers and residents of district Swabi; Zari alias Peer, Shahzad Mahmood alias Naseem Khan and Saleem Khan, residents of the Butt Khela agency and Tufail Khan and Maqbool Khan of Mardan.
Police record shows that the 12 people have never been arrested and taken to task. Dozens of futile attempts were made in the past to bring in these kings of car thieves to justice. Either they were not traced or were rescued by influential people if the law enforcing agencies succeeded in reaching them.
The 12 wanted men and their accomplices in the tribal areas are also said to have harboured and imparted training to other gangs of car thieves. They even sent these gangs with assignments to steal cars of specific makes and models to the Punjab and other parts of the country. The assignments vary from one gang to other according to the current demand for vehicles of specific models. It is impossible to catch any of the gang members once they get protection from kings of car thieves and their other tribal friends.
The Punjab police have brought the names and addresses of the 12 people and their business every now and then to the notice of the Punjab government home department, the federal interior ministry and the government of the NWFP.
The Punjab police also requested the authorities concerned for action against them but permission was never granted. Efforts to plant men in the tribal areas for the arrest of the wanted men also bore no results. In informal discussions with crime reporters, several senior police officers admit that it is impossible to break the tribal network of the car thieves.
The kings of car thieves are experts at changing a stolen car altogether from its colour to model and engine and chassis numbers. They have their own workshops with dozens of skilled employees.
Again, preparing documents of a stolen vehicle is a child’s play for them. They even give guarantee to buyers that the fake documents can’t be challenged anywhere in the country.
Several reports prepared by the Punjab police have admitted that it is almost impossible to bring a vehicle back once it is taken to the tribal areas. However, there are examples where the car thieves themselves contact the owners of vehicles and return them after receiving an agreed sum of money. It usually happens in cases of stolen Pajeros or Land Cruisers. The kings of car thieves prefer to contact the owners first before changing the identity of a costly vehicle.
Police too return stolen vehicles after payment. There are at least two examples where the police brought back stolen vehicles from the tribal areas after paying money in the last two years. One of the vehicles, a Land Cruiser, was taken away from a relative of the former premier Nawaz Sharif and the other, a 2.0D Toyota, was snatched from a former MPA of the Punjab.
One of the reports submitted to the federal government by the Punjab police says: “The main areas for the disposal of stolen and snatched cars are the NWFP and FATA. Very few vehicles ply in the cities from where they are stolen. Interrogation of the gangs of car thieves reveal that the majority of the stolen vehicles is taken from the Punjab within one day to one week at the most.”
It admits that: “Operational and legal hurdles are faced during the recovery of these vehicles, especially when they are taken to the tribal areas, the NWFP, other provinces or districts where their engine and chassis numbers are changed.”
Headed by Lahore CIA SP Mohammad Aslam Sahi, police teams which included personnel of the anti-car lifting staff, have recently prepared a report. It says that the Punjab is geographically interlinked through highways with the NWFP and Balochistan. “These highways are used as an easy and free passage to the two provinces by the car thieves.”
The report claims that permanent police pickets equipped with telecommunication system and computerized record of all stolen vehicles at 10 places on the highways can ensure non-entry of the stolen vehicles to the NWFP and Balochistan. These 10 places are Tarbela, Jharikas (Attock), Attock bridge, the old Attock bridge, Khushal Ghargh bridge, Jand (Attock), Kalabagh (Mianwali), Shahpur Saddar (Sargodha), Daryakhan (Bhakkar), Taunsa (Dera Ghazi Khan) and Ghazighat.
ROADS USED: The report says that GT Road is one of the favourite route for car thieves. From the old Ravi bridge, Lahore, to Rawalpindi, the car thieves use the GT Road and later take a turn towards Tarbela before the Attock bridge for Swabi, Jahangira and Mardan in the NWFP.
The Multan Road is less in use for taking stolen cars to the tribal areas but it is used for those stolen automobiles which are kept in far-flung areas of the Punjab for changing their identity.
MOTORWAY: The report claims that a majority of the stolen cars is taken out of the Punjab through the motorway. The thieves just change the number plates of a stolen car and drive up to Islamabad and then to the tribal areas.
It says that all requests to set up some pickets of the anti-car lifting staff of the Punjab police on this road have been turned down by the motorway authorities.
Only Toyota Corolla, especially its diesel model, all makes and models of Honda car, especially VTI and City, Pajero and Land Cruisers are taken to the tribal areas.
The 1982, 1986 and 1988 models of Toyota Corolla, Suzuki Mehran, Khyber and Margalla are disposed of in the remote areas of the Punjab after tampering with their engine and chassis numbers.
MODUS OPERANDI: Interrogation of the car thieves shows that all models of Suzuki and Toyota (82, 86 and 88 models) are stolen in majority of the cases. The thieves use a wire to make it a master key. The 2.0D model of the Toyota, all models of Honda cars, Pajero jeeps and Land Cruisers are snatched at gunpoint. In addition, there are some gangs operating in the Punjab that take away vehicles after administering something poison or sedatives to drivers.
LOCAL MARKET RECOVERY: Majority of small cars and motorcycles are disposed of in local markets in the Punjab. In most of cases these automobiles are dismantled and then reassembled by mixing spare parts of one vehicle to other and so on. The automobiles are dismantled and their spare parts are sold out in different markets, mainly Bilal Ganj in Lahore.
Recovery of the stolen cars from the local market is also not an easy task.
FACTORS RESPONSIBLE: There are at least 12 factors believed to be the responsible for increase in the automobile crime. These have been noted in several studies carried out by the Punjab police.
The factors are: registration of stolen vehicles from one province in another province on the basis of fake NOCs; dismantling of stolen vehicles and selling them off in the form of spare parts; use of bogus number plates of stolen vehicles by responsible people; handing over of recovered vehicles to non-deserving people on a temporary basis by police; using recovered vehicles by police without completing legal formalities; fake insurance claims; misuse of registration certificates of non-repairable vehicles after an accident; defective import policies relating to auto scrap and defective policies of local spare parts’ manufacturers which provide facilities for changing identification of stolen vehicles without number of spare parts available in the market.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES: The studies suggest that the system of automobile registration and communication be improved as part of preventive measures.
They recommend:
Effective coordination between motor registration authorities, dry ports, customs and automobile manufacturers
Fax and computer facilities at the departments concerned to verify documents in 24 hours.
Registration of vehicles in 15 days after clearance of custom authorities or sale by local vehicle manufacturers and record computerization.
Re-organization of squad responsible for prevention and detection of stolen vehicles.
Updating and computerization of record of recovered and stolen vehicles.
Verification of documents through anti-car lifting staff and inspection of stolen vehicles by the forensic science laboratory.
Inter-linking the anti-car lifting staff through computers with other districts.
Maintaining the record of stolen and snatched vehicles and criminals at the provincial level.