Public transport: the new frontier for organised crime

[Naveed Yaseen]

By M. Zeeshan Azmat
Many citizens who used to commute on public transport without fear are now becoming targets of organised criminals operating with impunity in public transport across the city. On the other hand, the police hesitate in lodging First Information Reports (FIRs) against such cases, and instead report missing entries rather than theft, snatching or robbery.

The News has learnt that women reported cases wherein they were distracted by a woman only to have another one swipe their jewellery. In one such instance, a housewife, who resides in Sohrab Goth, decided to board the ladies compartment of a public bus packed to full capacity. While waiting for her stop, she had to shuffle to avoid contact with the woman standing next to her. In her distress, she felt something against her neck. Realising that someone was trying to steal her necklace, the housewife grabbed the hand of a gypsy woman, who in turn denied any wrong doing despite being caught red handed. Unfortunately, the gypsy woman and her accomplice got off the bus at the next stop, before they could be handed over to the police.

Talking to The News, several victims have complained that such cases are occurring on a regular basis and the local police, despite repeated complaints do not bother investigating the scene of the crime either.

In this regard, a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity accepted that several police stations do not entertain victims in accordance with the law. Most policemen avoid lodging FIRs, he added. He said that many police stations believe that lodging too many FIRs can damage the reputation of the concerned police station, which may result in the transfer of police personnel of that station. “This exercise should be curbed at once to develop the public’s confidence in the system, else if the same conditions persist, then the victims will never approach the police. As a result, citizens would start taking law into their own hands”.

Tufail Shah, one of the victims of the robbery, said that two armed motorcyclists robbed a minibus driver on main Sharea Faisal near FTC. The motorcyclists collected hundreds of rupees at gunpoint and escaped the scene without any impediments. Meanwhile, the local police denied such incident and claimed that no FIR has been lodged in this regard.

According to Shah, the public has now decided to take matters into their own hands after suffering years of injustice. Though this is not entirely ideal, they have no other choice, he added. The police only confirms reported incidents after an FIR has been lodged, however since people have lost confidence in the police, most victims avoid filing FIRs.

Such cases highlighting robberies on public transport have been published and shown regularly in the media but thus far no serious attempts have been made at rectifying the miserable handling of the situation by law enforcement agencies.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=151694