Rising street crimes in Peshawar worry residents

PESHAWAR: The Capital City Police are struggling to check the rising street crimes in the provincial capital.

The police high-ups apparently can think of no other solution but to change the concerned station house officer (SHO) in a bid to improve the situation. In a number of violent incidents in the last few months, robbers and street criminals opened fire at the people offering resistance.

Over the past few days, one Ayaz was shot and wounded in Saddar while Sajid was injured in the limits of the Paharipura Police Station when they offered resistance to armed robbers.

There were a number of other robberies, snatching and theft cases in which there was no casualty but the robbers managed to take away cash and valuables.

The biggest incident that scared the public recently was an attack on a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of the Counter-Terrorism Department. DSP Ghani Khan was martyred while four people, including his gunman and driver, sustained injuries in the attack.

Police officials said they were investigating the case from all angles, including terrorism and any other issue. Whatever the reason of the attack, it has caused deep concern among the public who pray that it should not be the beginning of a fresh wave of terror in the city and the rest of the province. The bosses of the Capital City Police are trying to fix the issue of lawlessness by reshuffling SHOs frequently.

“Most of the SHOs couldn’t spend three or more months in one police station during the current year so how they can improve the law and order in a specific area? There are police stations where five SHOs have been changed during the last 10 months,” a source said.

The source pointed out that some of the SHOs were transferred a few days after their posting. There are cases in which officers were demoted in haste and their ranks were restored when they filed an appeal.

“The question is if an officer was transferred from one police station on the basis of his poor performance or corrupt practices then why he is posted SHO in another police station after a few days? If anything wrong was proven against them, they should never have been given another posting at least during the term of the current police setup,” added the source. A notification issued on Friday said six more SHOs were transferred and assigned new postings.

As per the notification, Ghaffar Ali was posted SHO Gulbahar Police Station, Murtaza Ali SHO Kotwali and Sajjad Ahmad SHO Michini. Besides, Noor Haider was posted in investigation wing while Nazeefur Rehman and Nisar Ahmad were closed to the Police Lines.

The spokesman for the Peshawar Police, Mohammad Ilyas said the law and order situation in the provincial capital has improved during the last five months compared to the same period last year.

He maintained that the crime figures were much better compared to the past and police were doing well against all kind of criminals. He claimed a number of gangs have been busted.

“As far as the transfer and posting of SHOs is concerned, these are being done in routine. Also, during the recent transfers one officer has to go as he has been selected for a course while two others asked to be relieved as they had some personal engagements,” said the spokesman.