Pakistan: Karachi witnesses 100 deaths related to street crime in last 9 months
Oct 04, 2024
Karachi [Pakistan], October 4 : Pakistan's Karachi has been witnessing a major rise in incidents of street crime. Recently, Karachi witnessed its 100th street crime-related death within the past nine months.
The incident happened on Wednesday late at night when a young factory worker was killed while resisting a robbery in Surjani Town in Karachi. The death is claimed to be the 100th life in a street crime incident. In addition, the city has also witnessed 700 injuries relating to similar street crimes, The News International reported.
This time the victim has been identified as a 25-year-old individual named Faisal, son of Ghulam Shabbir, who was returning home from work after collecting his salary when armed robbers stopped him. As the victim refused to cooperate, the robbers orchestrated an open fire and fled from the spot.
Despite daily reports, street crime in Karachi remains rampant in the city, The News International reported. Citizens repeatedly fall victim to robberies and gunfire. Victims often lose their lives or are injured, while being deprived of their valuables, such as mobile phones, cash, and motorcycles.
Around 100 people, including law enforcement officers and women, have lost their lives due to robbers' gunfire during street crime, The News International reported, citing local media reports.
Other reports suggest that Karachi has witnessed more than 50,000 criminal incidents during the first eight months of 2024, which includes more than 35,041 vehicle thefts, over 15,000 mobile phone robberies, over 1,173 cases of car theft and snatching, 15 cases of kidnapping for ransom and 63 cases of extortion. The same report also claimed that around 10 people were killed in September alone.
These figures show that on average, over 200 criminal cases were reported in Karachi. Out of these, snatching and stealing of mobile phones, cars and motorcycles are the most common ones. The financial impact of these incidents is estimated to be in millions of Pakistani rupees.
The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) has yet to release the official data for September. However, it's evident that Karachi is witnessing a concerning number of street crime incidents, totalling around 5000-6,000 incidents in the last month.
Previously, the data of the period up until August, with approximately 50,000 street crime cases, have already been reported. The total number of street crime incidents in the first nine months of this year would exceed 55,000.
