PPP has left Karachiites at mercy of street criminals: JI

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Wednesday strongly condemned the Pakistan Peoples Party over rising incidents of street crime in the city, saying they had left the Karachiites at the mercy of street criminals.

According to the statement issued by the JI, Rehman said 83 innocent people had been killed in street crime incidents during the current year, including 16 during the last month alone, and over 60,000 crime incident had been reported so far.

He expressed his grave reservations over “the worst failure” of law enforcement agencies to control the skyrocketing street crime in the city. Criminal elements were ruling over the megacity, he said, adding that on the one hand the police and Rangers had set up pickets for snap checking, and on the other hand, criminals had set up “checkpoints” to deprive citizens of their valuables.

He said a young Hafiz-e-Quran was killed during a mugging bid, recalling that over 100 people were deprived of their money, mobile phones, and other valuables in a single incident in Korangi in February.

Rehman said the fast-rising street crime graph and loss of innocent lives in such incidents flew in the face of the claim of the Karachi police that the situation was under control. He also dubbed the alarming situation a question mark on the performance of the Sindh police and other law enforcement agencies.

He said the situation was unacceptable as it had created an acute sense of unrest among the masses. The city generated the highest amount of revenue and contributed dominantly to the economy of the country, and it was called the economic nerve of Pakistan, but no one bothered to pay heed to this city. The crime statistics in Karachi were the highest among all the cities in the country, he said.