Karachi continued to be infested with street crimes in 2015

Extortion incidents decrease by 78.25pc during last year

ISLAMABAD: The year 2015 was no different from the previous year as the number of street crimes remained almost the same in Karachi except for extortion cases which declined by almost 78.25 percent.

During 2015, the city recorded just 0.71 fewer incidents of street crimes including extortion, vehicle theft and snatching as compared to the previous year.

The data obtained from the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) shows as many as 59,584 incidents of street crimes were reported during 2015, which are just 0.71 percent less than the previous year’s 60,009. The data further shows that the street crimes ratio in 2014 increased by 23.10 percent as compared to 2013 as during that year, a total of 46,145 incidents of vehicle theft, vehicle snatchings, mobile snatching and extortion were reported.

An analysis of the CPLC data shows that a total 1,716 incidents of vehicle theft were reported in the capital city of Sindh whereas February was the worst month when most vehicle thefts were reported. However the ratio of mobile snatchings and two wheeler (motorbike) theft remained the highest in the list. The data shows that a total of 2,724 two wheelers were snatched and 17,168 were stolen during the year 2015. Similarly, a total of 20,145 incidents of mobile snatching and 17,245 incidents of mobile theft were reported in the outgoing year.

Besides vehicle and mobile snatchings and theft, there have been incidents of extortion and bank robberies. The data shows that 234 incidents of extortion were reported in 2015 and January was the worst month when 47 incidents of extortion were reported. There were five incidents of bank robbery reported in the capital city of Sindh.

If we have a look at the previous year’s data, the incidents of vehicle theft were slightly higher than 2015 as 3,018 four wheelers’ theft was reported in 2014 whereas 854 incidents of vehicle snatching were also reported in the same year. The data of 2014 further shows that total 22,674 incidents of two wheelers’ theft and snatchings were reported whereas mobile snatching incidents in 2015 were 13.91 percent higher than 2014.

According to the data, a total of 32,188 incidents of mobile theft and snatchings were reported in the year 2014 as compared to 37,390 in 2015. Similarly, the bank robbery incidents in the year 2014 were higher than 2015 as 21 cases of bank robberies were reported in 2014 against five incidents in 2015.

The year 2015, however, brought a positive change in extortions and that may be because of deployment of Rangers as the extortion cases were reduced by 78.25 percent as compared to 2014. During 2014, a total 1,076 incidents of extortion were reported as compared to 234 in the year 2015. Security experts believe that the Rangers deployment brought positive change in the overall law and order situation in the metropolitan city as there was a significant decline in extortion cases as well as target killings in the outgoing year.

The data of killings in Karachi during 2015 was also sought from the CPLC. The last year’s data of CPLC on killings shows that a total of 2,507 people were killed in Karachi during 2014.