Although the provincial chief minister claimed a significant drop in crime rate during the present government’s tenure, official statistics of the Sindh Home Department suggest otherwise. Speaking on the Sindh Assembly floor on Thursday, what Qaim Ali Shah told the MPAs had no link with reality as according to Home Department’s figures, the crime rate in the last three years increased significantly.
The chief minister claimed 64 percent decline in street crimes, 45 percent decline in vehicle snatching, 27 percent decrease in kidnapping for ransom cases and 18 percent decline in highway robberies. Shah not only presented wrong figures, but also missed out on the increase in other crimes during the three years. Pakistan Today gathered official crime statistics from 2007 to 2010 and concluded that every category of crime had registered a sharp increase.
Murder cases in the province increased up to 44 percent in three years rising from 2,277 in 2007 to 3,289 in 2010. Murder attempts registered an increased of 29 percent with 3,179 attempts reported in 2007 and 4,125 in 2010. Similarly, karo-kari (honour killing) incidents registered a sharp increase of 62 percent during 2007-2010. A total of 99 cases of karo-kari were reported in Sindh during 2007, jumping to 161 in 2010.
A 40 percent increase was observed in rape cases, from 170 in 2007 to 239 in 2010. An unpleasant increase of 85 percent in gang-rape cases was witnessed in Sindh with 27 cases reported in the entire province in 2007 and 50 in 2010. Kidnappings also increased by 74 percent as 1,695 cases were registered in 2007 and 2,926 cases reported in 2010. Cases of kidnapping for ransom also show an increase of 19 percent in three years. In 2007, a total of 147 kidnapping for ransom were registered in police stations, which jumped to 175 in 2010.
An increase of 83 percent was observed in highway robberies during the last three years with at least 36 cases reported in 2007 and 66 cases of highway robberies registered in 2010. Despite the chief minister stating otherwise, 186 percent increase in bike theft was witnessed during 2007-2010 with 2,027 two-wheelers lifted in 2007 and 5,799 in 2010. Likewise, a sharp increase of 104 percent was reported in blasphemy cases with 24 cases of blasphemy reported in 2007 and 49 in 2010.
