KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday directed the police department to launch a decisive and result-oriented targeted operation against street criminals and their supporters in the city.
The chief minister issued this directive while chairing a special meeting on law and order, particularly street crimes, in the city, said a statement issued here.
Murad Ali Shah said he was not happy with the facts and figures of street crimes presented in the cabinet meeting a day earlier. Therefore, he added that follow-up meeting had been convened to review the rate of street crime and devise a pragmatic strategy to this effect.
Additional IG (AIG) Mushtaq Maher, giving 15-day comparative figures of street crime collected by the CPLC, said that some 19 four-wheelers were snatched during this period in 2015 and the figure dropped to seven in 2016 and reached 18 in 2017.
About four-wheelers theft, he said that in 2015, 92 four-wheelers were stolen, the figure came down slightly to 73 in 2016 and in 2017 it has further come down to 52.
He said that the two-wheeler snatching in 2015 was 152 and in 2016 it came down to 114 and in 2017 it has been recorded at 65.
AIG Maher added that mobile phone snatching in 2015 was 1187, in 2016 it was 791 and now in 2017 it is 530.
The Sindh chief minister said that though the figures have come down, street crime persists in the city and the complaints of the citizens are genuine.
He said that 13 police stations are the most affected in terms of mobile phone snatching, four and two-wheeler theft and snatching.
Murad Ali Shah added that in 2016, some 1548 street criminals were arrested and challaned; out of them 14 were convicted and three acquitted. Presently, 1082 are in jail and 449 are on the bail, he added.
IG Police Sindh AD Khawaja said that there is a link between street crime and narcotic addiction. The criminals mostly come from slums.
He said that the sanctioned strength for Karachi police is 39,589 against which 27389 are posted/working which show a shortfall of 12200 policemen. On this the Chief Minister allowed the IG Sindh to make recruitment on merit.
The chief minister said the ratio of police and population is not bad in the city. There may be some administrative issues which must be addressed properly, he stressed.
Murad Ali Shah directed the IG Sindh to expedite the installation of CCTV cameras and order extensive patrolling in the affected areas.
The meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Additional IG CTD Sanaullah Abbasi, Principal Secretary to CM Naveed Kamran Baloch, Home Secretary Shakeel Mangnijo, Commissioner Karachi Aijaz Ali Khan, Chief CPLC Zubair, DIG Traffic Asif Aijaz Shaikh and others.