• Home
• National
• Punjab News Room
• Histroy of the Punjab
• Opinions
• Busniess & Economy
• Education
• Punjabic Discussion Fourm
• Must Reads
• ☰

Ashraf Javed

LAHORE - More than 3,000 vehicles were either snatched at gunpoint or stolen away from different parts of Punjab during the first two months of this year.

In 2015, some 3,500 people were deprived of their vehicles either by robbers or thieves during the corresponding period.

Latest police data reveals that at least 2,014 armed robberies were reported during the first two month of this year against 2,352 such cases reported in 2015. Similarly, at least 1949 of burglaries were reported in Punjab in the first two months and last year, the police had registered some 2,252 cases.

More than five gunmen were involved in at least 130 armed robberies reported with the provincial police in January and February. Last year, the police had reported more than 200 cases of crime against property.

This improvement is not being accepted by citizens who say police don’t report all theft or robbery cases.

Interestingly, house robberies are not specifically mentioned in the police data. New statistics show during the first two months of this year, at least 2,464 motor vehicles were stolen and some 548 vehicles were snatched away at gunpoint from across the province.

More than 20,000 citizens are deprived of their vehicles every year in Punjab . Less than 10 per cent of the total snatched or stolen vehicles are recovered by police annually, and thousands of auto-lifting cases are declared by police as “untraceable”.

A good number of gangs are active in the booming business of auto-lifting that involves slight risk but high profits. Also, the stolen vehicles are bought by the so-called scrap-dealers who run clandestine workshops at Lahore’s Bilal Gunj market.

Auto-theft gangs employ a range of modus operandi to maximise their profits. Some steal vehicles as per the specific demand of their clients while others steal a particular make that is popular in areas where they have good links with the receivers.

As victims complain the police do not take auto-lifting cases more seriously, cops say the owners must adopt preemptive safety measures to protect their properties.

Auto-lifters are stealing cars with impunity from across the proving as police have witnessed a steep surge in the incidents of car-theft in recent years. Frequently, vehicles are being stolen from outside wedding halls, restaurants, shopping malls, and even on the hospital premises in the big cities.

More than 44,000 vehicles were either stolen or snatched away at gunpoint from different districts of the province during the last two years. Also, the provincial police had decaled at least 18,000 cases of auto-lifting as untraceable in 2014, and 2015.

On the other hand, Punjab witnessed a sizeable surge in the overall crime cases reported with the provincial police. During this first two months of 2017, a total of 65,549 crime cases were reported with the police against the last year’s 61,118 cases.

Murder: The incidents of murder decreased slightly during the first two months of 2017 as compared to the previous year. At least 540 murder cases were reported during the first two months of this year in Punjab . Last year, at least 625 murder cases were reported with the provincial police during the same period. The police are struggling to solve several blind murder cases and to arrest most of the alleged killers. In the category of blind murders, most of the victims were women who were found brutally murdered in different parts of the province.

Kidnapping: The police, during the first two months of this year, reported at least 1,986 cases of kidnapping while last year at 2018 such cases were reported with the police. Most of the victims are said to be women and young girls who were abducted by gunmen.

Rape/Gang rape: The province has also witnessed a steep rise in rape cases during the first two months of this year as compared to the matching period of 2016. The surge in violence against women is quite common in this province where most of the female victims don’t report the crime to the police either because of their family background or due to influential perpetrators.

At least 402 rape cases were registered with the provincial police in January and February this year while in 2016 the police had reported 396 such cases during the same period. Similarly, some 23 cases of gang rape were registered by police this year against 39 such cases reported during the first two months of 2016.

Cattle Theft: The police also claimed a reasonable decrease in cattle theft cases this year as compared to the previous. According to police, as at least 871 cattle theft cases were registered during the first two months of this year in Punjab while last year the police had reported 1,057 case during the same period.

Special & miscellaneous violations: Also, the provincial police reported at least 26,712 cases under the head of “local and special laws violations” during the first two months of the current year. Last year, the police had reported 23,443 such cases in January and February.

In the category of miscellaneous, police registered at least 19,477 cases in January and February while last year during the same period at least 16, 923 cases were registered with the Punjab police.

Police encounters: Police encounters also registered a slight decrease this year as compared to 2016. During the first two months of this year, at least 57 criminals were killed in no less than 44 armed encounters. Similarly, the police had killed at least 69 alleged criminals in 57 shootouts which took place in different parts of the province during January and February 2016. Police sources say that many of the most-wanted-criminals were killed in staged shootouts after they were arrested by police and interrogated in connection with cases of heinous crime .

Source: The Nation, April 03, 2017

Crime rate on rise in Punjab

Lahore

LAHORE: Punjab is undergoing an alarming increase in crime rate as at least 1,40,000 cases have been registered in the first five months of the current year whereas 10 people are being killed every day.

According to the documents received to a local media outlet, 1440 cases of murder and 1229 of attempt-to-murder have been registered in the police stations. Similarly, 28 cases of kidnapping, three of kidnapping for ransom and seven cases of rape are booked every day.

In the current year, 1120 rape cases, 5190 abduction cases and 15 kidnapping for ransom have been registered. Punjab police

On the other hand, Punjab police are seen making claims that the crimes have decreased as compared to previous years.

Source: Pakistan Today JUNE 11, 2017 BY MONITORING REPORT

Punjab hit by surge in crime

Ashraf Javed

LAHORE - The overall crime rate registered an upward trend during the first six months of this year as compared to the previous one.

The surge in violence was attributed to the rising incidents of crime against property including armed robberies, motor-vehicle lifting and cattle theft. The provincial police also reported a record number of cases related to murder, rape, and abduction during the first half of 2017.

All reported crime incidents are divided into two main categories - crime against person and crime against property. The part-I (crimes against person) includes eight categories - murder, attempted murder, hurt, kidnapping, kidnapping for ransom, rape, gang rape and others. The part-II (crime against property) comprises of dacoity, robbery, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, motor vehicle snatching, and cattle theft cases.

The Punjab police reported at least 203,199 cases of crime from January to June this year while last year the police had reported 201,839 cases of crime during the corresponding period. More than 33,600 cases are still under investigation and the police failed to trace criminals behind 4,467 cases.

The cases reported by police under the head of “local and special laws violations” also registered a reasonable increase during the first six months of 2017 as compared to the previous year. The Punjab police reported 77,053 cases in the category of local and special laws violations while in 2016 at least 75,819 cases had been registered under this head.

The police also reported at least 63,613 cases of crime under the head of Miscellaneous Laws against the last year’s 60,297 cases reported in the same category.

The conviction rate however improved comparatively. At least 45,616 persons were convicted during the first six months of this year while at least 36,807 persons had been convicted in various cases during the same period in 2016. Also, at least 40,856 persons were acquitted this year while last year at least 38,501 persons were acquitted in different cases.

According to latest police data, at least 38,629 cases were registered in the category of crime against property during the first six months of 2017 as compared to 40,533 such cases reported during the same period in 2016. Similarly, the police registered at least 23,904 cases in the category of crime against person as compared to 25,190 such cases reported during the first six months of 2016.

DACOITIES

The police reported at least 334 cases of dacoities (involving five or more than five gunmen) in the first six month of the current year against the last year’s 532 such cases.

ROBBERIES

The police data shows that at least 5,991 armed robberies were reported during the first six months of this year against 6885 such cases reported during the corresponding period in 2016.

BURGLARY

At least 5,231 cases of burglary were reported by the police this year against 5805 such cases registered during the same period last year.

THEFT

The provincial police registered 790 theft cases from January to June this year against 754 theft cases reported during the corresponding period in 2016. The police also claimed a considerable decrease in cattle theft cases this year as compared to the previous.

According to police, as at least 2,470 cattle theft cases were registered during the first 6 months of this year in Punjab while last year the police had reported 2,844 cases during the same period.

MOTOR VEHICLE-SNATCHING

This year, the police reported at least 1,688 cases of motor vehicle snatching in the first six month while during the same period in 2016 the police had reported 1,882 cases. As far as the motor vehicle theft is concerned, the police reported 7,283 cases against the previous year’s 8,073 cases reported during the same period.

In Punjab , the auto-lifting has become a booming business. More than 20,000 citizens are deprived of their vehicles every year. Less than 10 per cent of the total snatched or stolen vehicles are recovered by police annually, and thousands of auto-lifting cases are declared by police as “untraceable”.

MURDER

The incidents of murder decreased slightly during the first six months of 2017 as compared to the previous year. At least 1,915 murder cases were reported from January to June this year in Punjab . Last year during the same period, at least 2,108 murder cases were reported with the provincial police. This year, the police also registered 2113 attempted murder cases against the previous year’s 2265 incidents.

Investigators are struggling to solve many blind murder cases. In the category of blind murders, most of the victims were women who were found brutally murdered in different parts of the province.

KIDNAPPINGS

The police during the first six months of this year reported at least 6,771 abduction cases while last year at least 6,849 cases had been reported by the police. Most of the victims were said to be women and young girls who were abducted by gunmen.

Also, the Punjab police filed at least 22 cases of kidnapping for ransom in the first six months of the year. Last year, 17 cases had been registered with the police under the head of kidnapping for ransom.

RAPE/GANG RAPE

At least 1,374 rape cases were registered with the provincial police from January to June this year while during the matching period in 2016 the police had reported 1,516 rape cases. Similarly, some 89 cases of gang-rape are registered by police this year against 106 such cases reported during the first six months of 2016. At least, 13 gang rape cases are still under investigations.

SHOOTOUTS

At least 11 policemen lost their lives and 30 others wounded while fighting criminals from January to June this year. Last year, at least 17 police had died and 26 others were wounded while fighting back criminals in first six months.

On the other hand, the Punjab police killed more than 134 criminals during the first six months of this year as compared to 165 criminals killed in shootouts with police during the corresponding period last year.

Source: The Nation, July 17, 2017

Crime rises 34% from last year in Lahore

By Muhammad Shahzad

LAHORE: When you see a number of law enforcement agencies personnel at every corner of the street in Lahore, searching vehicles and frisking people, the first thing that comes to your head as a Lahori would be: “Am I safe?”

But a comparative study of crime data reveals that despite rigorous steps taken by the government to improve law and order, the situation has gone haywire.

This year, 28,709 cases of murder, robbery, kidnapping, extortion, car and bike theft and street crimes were registered while in 2015, 21,363 crime incidents took place, which shows that crime rate increased by 34% during 2016.

Keeping in view the surge in criminal activities over the last few weeks, it is expected that the number of such incidents will surpass in 2017.

Ironically, the senior police officers and government are denying the increase in crime rate and are just relying on to sensitise media by giving false information to the people.

“Even if you compare it with any developed city with a population of over 10 million, the crime rate of Lahore is nothing significant,” commented a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity.

He, however, accepted the police department should have improved its performance as the department had been given state-of-the-art combat trainings and modern resources.

“I know police performance is not up to mark and we have to clean our department from black sheep,” he added.

Earlier, the police department complained of lack of resources, technology and training to combat training, but the police force is roaming around the city with the motorcycles worth Rs1 million each but the result is zero.

According to official data, at least 1,054 cases of kidnapping were reported between January 1 and November 26, while 699 cases of the same nature were reported in 2015.

Similarly, around 4,507 cases of robbery were reported in 2016 as compared to 3,594 in 2015. There was a sharp increase in car snatching, which saw 29% rise in 2016. In 2016, 63 such incidents were registered as compared to 41 registered up till 2016.

Street crime rampant

Around 440 murder cases have been reported in 2016 when last year, 392 such incidents were registered in 12 months. In 2015, around 12 cases of murder-robbery were registered while 12 cases were also registered in 2016.

In 2015, there were 97 unsolved murders and such incidents have jumped to 103 in 2016. There were 732 cases of attempted murder reported in 2015 and 798 in 2016.

Cases of burglary and theft (380 of PPC) also increased during 2016 while 7,556 cases were registered, whereas 3,432 of these incidents were reported in 2015.

In 2016, 80 cases of robbery committed by more than five people, have been reported compared to 95 in 2015.

In 2015, 4,507 cases of robbery were registered while 3,594 robberies have been committed in 2016 so far. There were 4,507 cases of car theft in 2015 compared to 945 in 2016.

Furthermore, 528 cases of motorcycle snatching were reported in 2016 compared to 457 last year. In 2015, 6455 cases of motorcycle lifting were reported as compared to 5,930 in 2016. A total of 63 other vehicles were snatched while the corresponding figures were 60.

Source: The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2016