Rind claims marked fall in bloody street crime incidents in Karachi

The Sindh police have claimed a phenomenal reduction in bloody incidents of street crime in Karachi.

The claim to this effect was made by Karachi Additional Inspector General of Police Khadim Hussain Rind, while speaking at a press conference at the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday.

He was flanked by Sindh Caretaker Information Minister Muhammad Ahmed Shah, and Sindh Inspector General of Police Riffat Mukhtar. The press conference was held as a part of a series of media briefings led by the information minister to brief media persons about the working of the incumbent interim government in Sindh and to let journalists raise questions about governance-related matters in the province. In the earlier sessions of such media briefings, members of the interim cabinet appeared along with the minister.

Briefing media persons, Rind said the number of violent or bloody incidents of street crime in the city had almost decreased by half as compared to such unlawful instances in Karachi in August last year. He said the crime data also showed that there was a decrease in other incidents of lawlessness in Karachi as well.

He said some 668 policemen had laid down their lives in the line of duty in the city in the last 10 years.

He said that almost 10 years back, Karachi ranked 11th place on the list of most dangerous cities in the world from a security point of view. This ranking of the city had massively improved as Karachi now stood at 126th position. He said the police had been able to resolve cases pertaining to kidnapping for ransom.

The city police chief said criminals involved in up to 86 per cent of murder cases in the city had been detected and most of such culprits had been from outside the provincial capital.

To a question, he claimed that rape instances had not been reported in the robbery incidents in the city, and the criminals involved in robberies were mostly illegal immigrants.

Rind informed media persons that the station house officers had been asked to remain in their offices in the police stations to serve the people in the best possible manner. He said that recently a suspect involved in extortion of money had been caught.

He said criminals involved in the unlawful change of the IMEI number of the cellular phone sets had been caught.

Answering another question, he said that so far 40,000 illegal immigrants had left Karachi since the launch of the government’s drive against foreigners unlawfully residing in the country. He said that 58,000 more illegal immigrants were still present in the city as the police had complete data about them that had been compiled after proper surveys.

He said a greater number of police encounters and imprisonment of suspects involved in different crimes had occurred in 2023 as compared to the performance of police in the past years.

The Sindh IGP while assuring the media that the caretaker administration is politically impartial invited the concerned quarters to point out to him if there is any involvement of police in political purposes.

He lamented that a proper network of modern CCTV cameras was yet to be installed in Karachi for electronic surveillance in the city. He assured media persons that the police would do their best to secure the lives and belongings of the people in the available resources. He said the police and caretaker government were fully accountable before the masses for their conduct. He said the Sindh police had the fullest resolve to get rid of criminals in the province.