close
Friday March 29, 2024

Crime in Karachi

By Editorial Board
January 17, 2022

Just the first two weeks of 2022 have seen eight people killed and 30 injured in the city of Karachi, which is facing an alarming increase in street crimes. As was the case a few years before in Karachi, people are once again terrified of street snatchings, which also result in trigger-happy gunshot fatalities. The incidents of mobile phone, car and motorcycle snatching have risen dramatically in 2021 compared to 2020. The MQM and the PTI government have both blamed the PPP government – in power in Sindh – for the rise in crime and the failure to curb it. Certainly, this is a serious situation given that the lives and security of people is one of the primary priorities of any government.

The situation is now grave enough to draw the attention of TV talk shows and that point out that while the Rangers are still able to hold back serious crime and terrorism in Karachi, the police are failing in their duty of stopping crime, which most badly affects the lives of citizens. This is a matter that needs far more attention from the government – especially efforts by the Sindh government whose primary responsibility is ensuring the safety of the residents of its province. Karachi has faced street crime in the past, but the resurgence of the violence on the scale in the last few days has left people shaken. It is quite obvious that no one is safe, whether they are at a bank, at a shop, or merely on the road. Even an attempt at a hold up or a snatching leaves people traumatised and in shock and they have nothing to add to the image of the government or introduce a sense of security in a city, which has experienced crime for far too long.

We had hoped that after 2013 as the crime graph fell, this period for Karachi would have come to an end. Certainly, for some time, serious crime went down and with it street crime fell too. It however now seems to be back and this is terrible news for all the people who live and work in Karachi. In the breakdown of governance that we often talk about when it comes to Karachi, one thing is clear: all those relevant to the city always find a way to absolve themselves of blame and pass the buck to another actor. This cannot continue. Karachi cannot be expected to go right back to a time where your day could pretty well end up with an FIR for a stolen phone or bag or bike or car – or much worse.