The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) on Thursday released a report on street crimes committed in the first 10 months of 2020 in Karachi, local media reported. According to statistics compiled by the CPLC, as many as 322 people lost their lives while resisting robbery bids. More than 30,000 motorcycles were snatched or stolen, out of which 1,845 were recovered by the police.
The citizens were deprived of 18,000 cellphones during this period. 1.885 were recovered and handed over to their owners, the report reads. 1,300 four-wheeler vehicles were either snatched or stolen from the metropolis in the first 10 months of the current year. The police recovered 281 vehicles.
Furthermore, seventeen extortion money cases, two kidnappings for ransom, and one bank dacoity were reported during the said period in Karachi.
Last week, the spokesperson of Sindh Rangers had that a ‘most wanted’ street criminal, Abid Ali alias Dada has been arrested during a joint raid with Karachi police.
Abid Ali alias Dada was allegedly involved in different incidents of dacoity and robbery, had said the spokesperson of Sindh Rangers.
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The accused was arrested with the help of CCTV footage which showed him and his accomplice while looting citizens in Azam Basti.
Karachi seeing violence since the 1990s?
Karachi has been seeing violence and acute law and order situation since the 1990s. Several people were killed, looted, exploited, or made criminals for the political interests of Altaf Hussain. However, during the last government of PPP, the Pakistan Rangers were given the task to restore peace and order in Karachi. The situation has improved significantly.
Moreover, Pakistan arrested Indian spy Commander Kulbhushan Yadav whose codename was Hussain Mubarak Patel from Balochistan who later admitted that his job was to meet people in Karachi and Balochistan and spread violence.
“I commenced intelligence operation in 2003 and established a small business in Chabahar in Iran as I was able to achieve undetected existence and visits to Karachi in 2003 and 2004 and having done some basic assignments within India for RAW”, he said in a confessional video.
Therefore, some analysts believe that the MQM from the 1990s under the leadership of Altaf has been taking help from the RAW to destabilize Pakistan. There is a sufficient amount of evidence in the shape of Kulbhushan Yadav that Karachi has been the main target of the RAW. There are chances that the court will order to confiscate the property of Altaf Hussain.
PTI attempts to Upgrade Karachi
In August 2020, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, while hearing the nullahs’ encroachment case, expressed anger at the dismal situation of cleanliness in Karachi, stating that the Sindh government has completely failed in the province.
Heading the bench, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad told the advocate general Sindh that the provincial government had “turned entire Karachi into a goth”. “The entire city is filled with filth and sewerage water,” said the chief justice angrily. “Mosquitoes, flies, and germs are everywhere. People are walking on stones [to cross sewerage water],” he added.
Later on, a coalition of three parties, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), has reportedly been formed for the development and well-being of Karachi. Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Sunday welcomed the coalition. The minister in a statement said the three parties’ resolve to work together is good news for the public.
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The PPP government has so far remained unable to show any performance to control the street crime in the country’s largest province despite being in power for last more than 10 years.