Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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may Allah have mercy on Karachiites and us all. I hope the stats in 2014 are different.

Karachi 2013: The deadliest year of all – The Express Tribune

****KARACHI: **Despite highly publicised and much touted operations by law enforcement agencies (LEAs), 2013 has gone down in history as the bloodiest year so far for Karachi with 2,700 people killed and crime soaring past 40,000 reported incidents.
**
Data released by the Sindh Police and Rangers shows that even though LEAs were seen to be in constant action, crime soared to 40,848 incidents of reported crime, even as thousands of criminals were arrested, raising questions about the gains claimed by the government.

**Crime busting stats
**
With the Karachi police unable to effectively take on criminals across the metropolis, Rangers were given police powers and tasked to spearhead crackdowns against criminals.

Newly released data shows police and Rangers claimed completing almost 9,229 targeted raids in which 13,906 suspected criminals were arrested.

Additionally, 8,469 weapons were also recovered in these raids.

Despite such extensive action, 2013 saw incidents of heinous crimes such as killings, extortion, kidnappings, robberies, theft, terrorism, remain at all time highs, similar to trends seen in 2012.

While 181 target killers were arrested (69 by police, 112 by Rangers), the data provided shows that 2,715 people were killed in the year.

The word ‘cracker’, a term for a tennis ball filled with explosives to make a crude improvised explosive device, became a household name in 2013, while bomb blasts now regularly mark turn of events. Yet law enforcement agencies reported the arrest of just 33 terrorists (19 by police, 14 by Rangers) in the year.

**Extortion? What extortion?
**
In the days before the year ended, a minor was killed when a grenade was hurled into a house in PECHS locality of Karachi. Though police suspected that the incident was related to extortion, the owner of the house was reluctant to divulge that.

Police also suspected that a blast in the car of a travel agency owner was caused by explosives planted by extortionists. With estimates that only a third of extortion cases are reported, these and many other cases did not make it into police’s list of 519 reported cases of extortion in the year.

The fact that these incidents took place towards the end of a year in which law enforcement agencies claimed to have arrested 253 extortionists (101 by police, 152 by Rangers), shows that the fight is nowhere close to being won.

With 3,086 robberies in the year, including 28 bank robberies, and 10,501 reported mobile snatching, police and Rangers could arrest only 321 robbers and 149 street criminals.

The largest group of criminals arrested by law enforcement agencies was of absconders in various court cases — 3,356.

The second largest group of people arrested were those booked under laws for carrying guns (2,454) while 2,841 small arms were also recovered.

A total of 1,441 people were booked under anti-narcotics laws, forming the third largest group of people arrested for heinous crime.

In all, success in capturing the most deadly criminals was low.

Vehicle theft and snatching though were the most reported crimes in the year with 26,352 cases reported. Of these, there were 22,284 cases of motorcycles being either stolen (16,083) or snatched (6,201). There were 4,068 cases of four wheelers being either stolen (3,222) or snatched (846).

**September impetus
**
With over 2,000 people killed by September in the city, it was no secret that a crisis was brewing in the country’s financial hub.

Perturbed, newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew in to kick start remedial action. Taking all parties into confidence, and deciding on keeping the army in the barracks, a fresh assault on crime was announced in early September.

The Rangers data claims that of the 2,325 raids that they made in 2013, over half (1,283) were in the last four months of the year. These targeted raids yielded 43 per cent (1242) of the 2,874 people arrested in the year and 34 per cent (1,915) of the 5,628 weapons recovered.

Though the bloodletting did not stop, police data claimed there were only half as many killings in September as compared to August.

Till the end of the year, the month-on-month graph of killings was in steady decline. Having peaked in March (318), the data claims that the daily average of killings for the second part of 2013 was almost half compared to the first part.

Other crimes were shown to be in decline too.

Kidnappings, dacoities, vehicular snatchings and theft, which peaked in July, were all shown to be down by almost half by the end of the year.

However, in comparison to the hundreds of raids and thousands of arrests, the gains looked less impressive.

Extortions, which peaked in September with 77 reported cases (after, jump in reporting them) was steady at the year’s average number of 39 reported cases in December.

**Deadliest year for LEAs
**
The year was the deadliest for law enforcement personnel as well. As many as 172 policemen were killed in the city, along with 19 comrades from the Rangers. In the same period, police and Rangers reported killing 105 criminals in 2013.

The Rangers were the more ruthless of the two LEAs, reporting as many as 48 criminals killed in 28 encounters.

Full Sindh Police crime data for Karachi in 2013 can be viewed here.

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

Bring the tanks. It'll calm everything down.

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

So this is how the City run by self confessed 'liberal' parties look like?

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

We commend the Pakistanis security forces for targeting the enemies of peace. We wish to see a safe and secure Pakistan for the sake of restoring peace in the region. The importance of Karachi cannot be overlooked. It is hard to imagine a safe and secure Pakistan without a safe and secure Karachi. Karachi is the largest city of Pakistan, and the deteriorating security situation impacts the rest of the country. At the same time, we have full confidence in the government’s ability to bring the situation under control. We stand by the government of Pakistan and fully support their efforts to negate the threat of violence in Karachi.

Ali Khan
DET, United States Central Command

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وايٹ ہاوس توں سانو ايئ اۓ فیکس eh

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کراچی کے بھائی اور بہنوں لگتا ہے آپ کو خود صفائی کرنی پڑے گی.

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

Its utter disgrace!

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

When our financial capital is being destroyed then how can we expect any kind of economic recovery?

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

the names of those arrested by police are never made public and no trials have begun. are they arrested to give them state protection until things calm down [politically] and they are released back into the society to carry out what they do best.

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

Yesterday six people were found dead near some shrine, with a note "don't visit shrines".

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

Death toll rises: Over 3,200 killings in Karachi make 2013 deadliest year so far – The Express Tribune

**KARACHI: **The year 2013 was the deadliest one for Karachi so far. As many as 3,251 people were killed or they died from the several incidents of violence in the city, according to a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

The city has seen a sharp increase in killings in the past few years with 1,981 people killed in 2010, 2,382 killed in 2011 and 3,105 killed in 2012.
Of the killings and deaths in 2013, nearly 1,000 people who had no affiliation with any political party also lost their lives in targeted attacks. The number of political workers targeted and killed was 268, and 108 people were killed due to their sectarian beliefs.

The law enforcers also surface in the violence data as 189 people in Karachi were killed either during police encounters or due to torture during custody. The police force did, however, lose 169 personnel, apart from 22 Rangers men and other law enforcers. They also managed to gun down 28 members of banned outfits.
Lyari gang war claimed more than 100 lives. Of the entire year, August was the bloodiest month with 334 killings or deaths.
According to HRCP chairperson Zohra Yusuf, sectarian and police killings have increased in 2013 as compared to previous years. Referring to the targeted operation that started in September last year, she said the start of the operation showed some improvements in law and order but it failed to sustain.
“The operation has to be transparent,” Yusuf said. “The law enforcement agencies have to be transparent about the men they pick up, who they are and where they are. Right now there are only statistics of the men arrested and nothing to back them.”
For Yusuf, the biggest challenge of this year will be facing terrorist groups, such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, who are becoming stronger and making their presence felt in Karachi. “The recent incident of men slaughtered at a shrine is alarming,” she said. “The Rangers have done a few operations but they are not completely effective. The Taliban can kill whoever they want to.”

Out of fear, Asghar Ilyas’s children have stopped going to school. They even shudder when going to the bathroom alone. Since they saw their father and a sister being sprayed with bullets, the car getting splattered with blood and the deafening voice of gunfire, the memory is etched in the minds of the five children forever.
“I get scared when I think about it sometimes. I miss my papa and sister,” said the eldest Bilal, who is only seven. Asghar’s brother, who did not want his name published, admitted the whole family has been left torn apart by the incident.
It was last January when the entire family came under attack by unknown men. The family was on their way home after attending a wedding near Aisha Manzil when some men opened fire at the car and killed Asghar and his three-year-old daughter, Zainab.
“It was around 11:45pm when the firing stared,” Asghar’s brother recalled. “They were all in the car and were reciting their prayers for a safe journey.” Dua, Asghar’s other daughter, was also injured in the same attack. The bullets hit her in the abdomen and she had to undergo surgery. “She has become very weak now.”
The family is under the impression that they were targeted due to their sectarian beliefs. Since the attack last year, they have packed their bags and left their house in Federal B Area. “For six months, our women and children have not stepped out of the house. We cannot afford to lose any more lives now.”

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

There was and still A KHUFIA HATH but THEY turn into that word NAMALOOM. including Sindh, Punjab Balouchistan KPK suffered always IF Waderas Choudhries Khans Sardars ruled us.

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Re: Karachi 2013 - The deadliest year

Agreed, but these things are of the past now. Urban terrorism in the format of MQM and Talibobs have taken over. Terrorism is now a key to rule the people.