‘We will not let more loved ones die,’ relatives say after 48 people died in street crime in Karachi this year.
KARACHI: Ali Rahbar, a 38-year-old delivery boy, broke his fast and left for work in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi last week during the holy month of Ramadan. His family waited for his return to eat Sehri in the morning to keep the next day’s fast, but they received a call from a hospital asking them to collect Rehbar’s body.
The 38-year-old man was one of 48 people killed in the past three months while allegedly attempting to resist street looting – a crime that appears unstoppable in Pakistan’s largest city and commercial capital.
While a recent police report mentions 29 deaths between January 1 and March 14, local media is reporting 48 deaths so far this year, revealing the grim reality about the loss of a human life every other day. Is. However, a Karachi police spokesperson told Arab News on Monday that there were only 17 deaths and 145 injuries during the last three months.
Persistent discrepancies between police records and reported incidents point to a lack of will on the part of authorities to seriously deal with the issue, while city residents say they are at the end of their patience after losing dozens of people in a row. Has gone. Events.
“We can’t take this anymore. So many people have died. This has to stop,” said Rahbar’s brother Ali Shepar, who plans to organize a protest this week to highlight the issue of rampant street crime.
“What happened to our brother should not happen to others. “We want to tell (the authorities) that we are still alive and we will not let more of our loved ones die.”
Schepper shared that his family was devastated after his brother’s death and he wanted no one to have to face the same hardship. “We’re not mourning or crying, but sometimes, when we’re quiet, memories of our brother come back,” he said.
Saqib Sagir, a Karachi-based journalist covering crime and security issues, blames police corruption, appointments of police station in-charges without qualifications and some “external factors” for the increase in street crime.
“The figures highlight a disturbing trend: two-thirds of offenders apprehended have a history of prior imprisonment. In the long term, the Sindh government should comprehensively restructure the prosecution department on the basis of merit,” he said. “Special and competent prosecutors should be appointed to handle cases involving street crimes.”
Sagir also urged the bar associations to suspend the licenses of lawyers who represented persons suspected of being repeatedly involved in street crime.
On Sunday, newly appointed Sindh provincial police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon chaired a meeting and tasked 67 top officials with investigating street crime cases.
But provincial home minister Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar later surprised many when he told reporters that “crime is a part of daily life.” The minister accused the media of exaggerating the figures.
While Lanzar did not respond to repeated attempts by Arab News for comment, the father of one of the street crime victims said that these incidents were happening “every day”.
“People are losing their lives every day and it seems like no one cares,” said Muhammad Hussain, father of Muhammad Laraib, a 22-year-old BBA undergraduate who was killed during a robbery attempt on March 4.
“It feels like the laws of our country are non-existent when it comes to catching criminals. My son was just busy with his daily routine, going to the mosque, my shop and studying.”
Hussain said that his wife has been in distress since then.
“Every step she takes is a painful reminder of her loss,” he told Arab News. “We were preparing for her wedding, but now… we are struggling with grief.”
He said that when the Karachi police chief visited him last month, he had only one request: “I begged him to save the children of other mothers.”
Zoha Wasim, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, who has also written a book on corruption within the Karachi Police, said that street crime cannot be reduced through police reforms alone.
“In reality, policing is not an adequate response to crime. Prevention is dependent on tackling the social and economic causes that drive people to commit criminal acts,” he said, highlighting the rise in inflation with nearly 40 percent of Pakistanis living below the poverty line.
“The government needs to make serious efforts to address these social and economic issues. It is not enough to say that “crime is a part of daily life”. We cannot deny this fact.
