Street crimes on the rise in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Street crimes are on the rise in almost all parts of the provincial capital while police seem helpless against the gangs which are operating here.

The incidents of snatching, robberies and theft are on the rise during the holy month as many people have been robbed with their cellphones snatched while valuables are also stolen from shops and houses almost daily.

Shakil Farman Ali, head of the Geo News Peshawar bureau, was robbed by armed men in Dabgari locality on Sunday. The cops swung into action when the matter was brought into the notice of senior police officials.A day earlier, son of another senior journalist, Faridullah Khan, was robbed on University Road near Islamia College University.

A number of incidents happened on Ring Road and Kohat Road in the limits of Rahman Baba and Bhanamari police stations in recent weeks. Gulbahar, Saddar, Gulberg, Paharipura, Hayatabad, University Road and other localities in the province capital have witnessed a sharp increase in the crimes.

“Dozens of cases of theft, snatching and robberies are happening in the limits of every police station daily. Hardly a few cases are registered at the police stations while in a majority of the incidents, cops avoid lodging the cases by dodging the complainants,” a source said.

It added that this practice had been going on for years while senior cops encouraged it to show better figures to the media and government. Some argue that small thefts or snatching of phones was not significant and should not even be reported by the media.

The people are so disappointed that a large number of incidents of snatching of cellphones and cash, theft from homes, shops and other places are not even being reported to police since the victims think that they are not going to get any relief.

There are a number of factors that the crime rate is not coming down despite efforts by the police.Unprecedented inflation, joblessness and manifold increase in the number of ice addicts are some of the key factors of higher crime rate and insecurity among the public. The ice addicts are violent and they don’t care about the consequences.

There is poor grip of the station house officers and sub divisional officers on the criminal rings within their areas. Though a number of cops were reshuffled recently, the situation remained unchanged or even worsened.Many on social media believe the situation in many areas is alarming, asking for going after the gangs more aggressively before the situation goes out of control.