ISLAMABAD: The ongoing Karachi operation has brought significant decline in terrorism, crime and improved the law and order situation in the metropolitan city as the city has recorded 69 percent decline in target killing, murder by 50 percent, terrorism down by 80 percent, extortion by 60 percent whereas kidnapping for ransom by 100 percent, official data shows.
According to a document of Interior Ministry, the progress of ongoing Karachi operation is satisfactory as the metropolitan city which previously faced the worst law and order situation has improved significantly.
The data shows that the during the combine Rangers and Police operation in Karachi, total 69,179 alleged criminals were arrested out of which 890 were terrorists, 676 proclaimed offenders, 10,426 absconders and 124 kidnappers. Similarly total 545 cases of extortion were reported and 1,834 cases of murder have been reported so far.
As per the data, the incidents of terrorism have been brought down after the Karachi operation whereas the murder ratio down by 50 percent. The major improvement was recorded in the incidents of terrorism which declined by 80 percent and the robberies cases also declined by 30 percent whereas 16,304 weapons have been recovered during the operation, the data reveals.
However in terms of street crimes, 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, the data of Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) shows.
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.
