Law & order gradually improving, says DG Rangers

KARACHI: In response to Karachi Chamber's deep concerns expressed over rising lawlessness particularly the increase in street crimes, Director General of Pakistan Rangers Sindh Maj. Gen. Muhammad Saeed has claimed that the law and order situation of Karachi has been gradually improving as the year-wise statistics clearly indicate descending trends in all the incidents including target killings, kidnapping for ransom, demand for extortion, bank robberies, thefts and street crimes etc., says a Press release.

"Rangers' troops are actively involved in strictly dealing with street crimes as well. We are dealing with street crimes in a big way as a total of 1500 individuals were arrested by Rangers during the last four months and handed over to police", he added while sharing his views at a meeting during his visit to Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Chairman Businessmen Group & Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli, Vice Chairman BMG & Former President KCCI Zubair Motiwala, President KCCI Shamim Ahmed Firpo, Senior Vice President KCCI Asif Nisar, Vice President Muhammad Younus Soomro, former Presidents KCCI AQ Khalil, Abdullah Zaki and Younus Muhammad Bashir, Former SVP Muffasar Atta Malik, Chairman KCCI's Special Committee for Small Traders Majeed Memon, Managing Committee members and others attended the meeting.

DG Rangers informed that 70 percent of individuals involved in street crimes, who were apprehended by Rangers, were drug addicts. "It is a matter of grave concern that this city hardly has 60-beds capacity to rehabilitate the drug addicts. We have to pull them out of addiction and in this regard, the business and industrial community, philanthropists, people of Karachi, civil society and provincial government will have to come forward and play a major role in order to rehabilitate them."

DG Rangers pointed out that CPLC's statistics clearly indicate that every criminal activity from terrorism to phone snatching have been declining as compared to the same period of previous years which shows that the situation is gradually improving. "As on July 31st 2017, the crime rate in Karachi was much lower as compared to other cities around the world including Ahmedabad (India), Mumbai (India) London (UK) and New York (US) who were ahead of Karachi despite the fact that all these cities are well-equipped with latest technologies and every vehicle is tagged with RFID", he said, adding that Rangers asked local bike manufacturers to tag motorcycles with RFID which helps in tracing motorcycles but they are reluctant to do so due to additional costs, making these bikes uncompetitive in the local markets.

Maj. Gen. Muhammad Saeed further informed that they created a separate 24-hours hotline which is actively engaged in listening to and resolving the issues being faced by the business and industrial community.

On the occasion, Chairman BMG & Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli appreciated DG Rangers for maintaining excellent liaison with Karachi Chamber for resolving genuine issues being faced by the business and industrial community.

"Upon commencement of Karachi Operation in September 2013, Pakistan Rangers Sindh was given four major responsibilities which included strict action against kidnapping, extortion, target killings and terrorism incidents. Around 80 to 90 percent of success has been achieved in all these domains which the business and industrial community highly appreciates but some other serious criminal activities falling under the purview of police department require Rangers intervention as they continue to worsen day by day due to politicization and manipulation of Police Department by the government", Siraj Teli said, adding that the Karachi Chamber has been expressing deep concerns from time to time over politicization of police but received a lot of criticism in return from political parties and it was a matter of concerns that to date, 35 percent of recruitments in police department were politically affiliated.

"Police department's functioning simply cannot be improved until it is completely cleansed from politically affiliated officers and the government stops controlling it", Chairman BMG said, "As the police department simply cannot or don't want to control street crimes, therefore, Rangers will have to take this responsibility on their shoulders as well", he suggested.

In this regard, Siraj Teli offered Karachi Chamber's full support and cooperation to DG Rangers in convincing the authorities at federal and provincial levels to transfer additional responsibilities of dealing with rising street crimes and other heinous crimes in Karachi to Rangers as well as the police department has failed miserably to deal with these issues.

He was of the view that in order to really improve the performance of police department, emphasis should be laid on training and capacity building of this department as it is the police officers who will ultimately have to take control of the city's law and order situation some day when Rangers troops depart and go back to their barracks.

Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chairman BMG and Former President KCCI Zubair Motiwala, while referring to rising street crimes in Karachi, pointed out that street crimes have risen sharply by at least 10 times in different areas of the city where criminals fearlessly snatch valuables from families and do not even hesitate in shooting upon little resistance. "Around 60 vulnerable locations in Karachi were identified by Pakistan Rangers quite some time ago where street crimes were mostly taking place but no concrete step has been taken to deal with the same, resulting in intensifying criminal activities at all these locations which have to be taken up by Rangers", he added.  

He said that it was also a matter of concern that Rangers mobiles have probably lessened patrolling in Site area and some Rangers pickets have also been abandoned, paving way for enhanced crimes in Site area which is the largest industrial zone of the country. 

Zubair Motiwala was of the opinion that poor and unemployed youth finds no other option but get involved in criminal activities. "We have to save this youth from getting into criminal activities by creating maximum number of job opportunities which can only be done through industrialization. Unfortunately, no attention is being paid to this serious issue and it is really alarming that no new industrial units are being established due to unavailability of gas and electricity", Zubair Motiwala said, "Although it is not in Rangers' domain, but in order to maintain law and order situation on long term basis and make it sustainable, it is necessary for you to involve yourselves into the issues which hinder industrialization in shape of recommendations to the government."