Despite tall claims, the crime rate in the federal capital, Islamabad spiked in the previous year. The statistics showed that at least 9000 crimes of varying nature were reported at 22 Police stations in the city.
A total of 9000 crimes were reported in Islamabad in 2019 which is 1500 more than 2018’s figure of 7500 crime cases. At least, 100 people were murdered including an army official in Islamabad. This was only slightly low from 106 murder cases in 2018. More than 300 attempt-to-murder cases were reported in 2019 compared to 142 in 2018.
Police also registered 2600 cases of robbery, theft, mugging and vehicle theft in Islamabad in 2019 compared to 2160 such cases in 2018. Moreover, kidnapping cases also increased in the federal capital; nearly 500 cases of kidnappings were registered in 2019 compared to 357 cases of kidnapping and molestation in 2018.
ATTENTION!
Please beware of FAKE ACCOUNTS on Twitter pretending to be Islamabad Police. Action is being initiated by Cybercrime unit to take them down, but until then please report to twitter about such fake accounts.
Only @ICT_Police officially represents Islamabad Police.— Islamabad Police (@ICT_Police) January 1, 2020
However, Islamabad Police only showed improvements in controlling the smuggling of drugs and liquor. The major crackdown of Islamabad Police was against home-based liquor producing factories but did target bootleggers who have made a business of supplying smuggled foreign liquor. Islamabad Police arrested 40 Afghan nationals in 2019 which is lower than 60 in 2018.
Read more: Islamabad installs ‘Smart traffic system’ for better monitoring
Islamabad Police, however, refused the reports of a surge in crime rate in Islamabad. The spokesperson of the Islamabad Police claimed that the crime rate has dropped by 13% in Islamabad in 2019 while cases of burglary, snatching, kidnapping for ransom and robbery has decreased substantially.
The surge in crime statistics has raised a question mark on various administrative actions taken to tackle crime in the city. Virtually 500 police officials ranking from the inspector general to constables were transferred and posted around in a major reshuffle in Islamabad Police.
Afghan gangs even beat young boys who will carry scar for life more on soul than body. Family is traumatized as administration receiving congratulations on “peaceful new year night”. Islamabad Police need new IG to handle alarming rise in crimes. Islamabad fast becoming Karachi. https://t.co/Zd1tonk789
— Rauf Klasra (@KlasraRauf) January 1, 2020
Moreover, nearly 150 Police pickets were deployed while the double down patrolling by police officials and Rangers have proved futile. Even the expenditure of Rs.13 billion on the Safe City Project did not reap favorable results in the federal capital.
Journalist Rauf Klasra, recently posted an incident of a family robbed at a gunpoint in Islamabad by a group of Afghan nationals; he slammed the Islamabad Police for lack of security in the city and beating drums of “safe city.”
He posted the incident in a tweet and even asserted that rowdy Afghani robbers even beat children of the family; the incident has left the family traumatized.
Terror related fatalities
This comes at a time when the Independent Centre for Research and Security Studies’ report recorded a 31% drop in terror-related fatalities in Pakistan. The report told that that terror-related fatality in Balochistan dropped 44.2%– going from 405 in 2018 to 226 in 2019. In KPK, the rate dropped by 39%– the terror-related death count dropped from 156 in 2018 to 148 in 2019. In Punjab, the rate dropped by 11% with a drop from 93 in 2018 to 82 in 2019.
Read more: A Terror Free Pakistan: Fatalities dip up to 31% in 2019
Gilgit-Baltistan saw a decline from 7 to 0. FATA recorded a drop by 39% where the death count dropped from 192 to 117.
Only, the federal capital recorded a rise of 16%, the terror-related fatalities jumped from 6 to 7 in 2019.