High Frequency of Street Crimes!!
Last night I come across two consecutive incidents in a minute, but similar happenings in both cases… Cell Phone Snatching… Here’s the story:
I was traveling by an overly crowded mini bus and waiting for my stop… suddenly a man jumped out from the running bus and ran away from the bus… an unfortunate man cried “Mobile… Mobile!” and jumped out to follow the cell phone picker the scene ended. After some moments the bus stopped and I was on my way… again a man was running furiously behind the other… same story but different persons and a different cell phone.
Although these things are now a part of most metropolis but I feel the frequency of such crimes is getting higher and higher with every passing day. People are afraid to carry their precious portable devices. I recalled a photo printed in The Daily Dawn that a foreigner tourist capturing images at M.A. Jinnah Road, Karachi with a gunman for his security.
Is there any method to control such crimes?
My goodness just now we were talking about cell phone snatching in Karachi on our way out from a mall at Orchid Road in Singapore. We are on an official trip here and because we are used to see people not showing off their mobile phones in Karachi so when we saw here that everyone has expensive sets and all the time playing with ’em; we were like “yaar its another city and nobody does such kind of stuff here.
New slogan – “Karachi robs”!
In a country where a poor person can not afford a house ; where no water is provided ; where no heathcare and schooling is provided and where the deserving are not ‘fit’ for the job – cell phone snatching is a small incident – there should be a revolution against this capitalist imperialistic elite now – but who cares? mmarnay doo sub ko ! our society is corrupted no one cares about anyone – we deserve this … we really do
Mr Ali Chisti… what do you propose we do ? Convert the govt. to a communist regime ? state controlled ? what ??
People will get a chance to raise their standard of living ONLY if they want to themselves. There are a lot of helping hands in Karachi (and pakistan in general), but no one can ‘make’ someone do anything. I am part of a program called ‘Rozgar’ sponsered by Rotaract Club of Karachi Metropolitan (www.rckmetropolitan.tk) recently. The aim of the plan is to help people setup their own small businesses (from thela’s to small shops), and you know what our biggest problem is ? FINDING candidates who are willing to work ! sure, a lot of people just want to get the money, so they can cater to immediate needs (which in some cases was even booze), but when presented with the opportunity to work for their money, simply said NO.
We now have funds, and no one to spend it on !!! The responsiblity for one’s self begins with their own selves. Its very nice to blame the govt. or your local thanedar, etc etc etc, but for the majority, its their own selves which are to blame.
coming baq on topic….. i too have heard many such stories… the most recent, a (female) friend of mine was going out with her family (mom, bro and lil six year old sis) and was held up by two guyz with guns.. who held it to the younger sisters head, demanding their cell phones. The brother and mother were relieved of their sets, and the men went about their ‘merry’ way :@
really pisses me off !!!
My cousin had his snatched while he was driving by old Subzi Mundi last year. A 12-14 year old boy ran up, snatched the phone and just ran into the gullies. He tried to follow him but returned back soon ‘coz he was afraid that he might loose his car as well.
” AAP KO TOH PATA HAI lent CHAL RAHAA HAI iam staying away from the mini’s and the chickens are being kept away from me !”
ZAIN! did you find any pakistani product on sale or in use there..?
Related but Different Perspective
Can we avoid such accidents ??
Every day yah almost every day we read in newspaper that 2 or 3 persons in Karachi get kill in cross fire with police when they were trying to snatch mobile phones or the kids kill people who resist.
How much mobiles cost ? few thousands ???
What’s the age of those guys ?? 18-22
I am not supporting those guys but it seems to me unfair to kill them.
Why not police try to arrest them, why don’t those kids just give up to police if they get trap. Why not police use rubber bullets ??
Any thing you do till age of 22-24 should earn you a extra chance, thats very immature age.
Could some one tell me what is the reason that they those guys take death isntead of giving up ? Life is so precious and one such mistake could not give any one right to depart a soul of any one.
I guess the reason is that citizens don’t trust police, they know if they get caught, police would burden them with lots of cases so they just try to run away.The guys who snatch mobiles are not professional generally. Professional people would never go for 5-10K mobile.
We should try to build faith between police and citizens(yeah those guys are also citizens) and make sure that those kids should give up instead of running away and should bear only 2-5 years of prison. Life sentence (and that’s beyond judicial system is quite unfair).
In 1995 , Altaf Hussain’s Uncle and nephew were murdered and then in follwing week Chief Misnister Abduallah Shah relatives were murdered as revenge (Its all just my speculation, I have no proof). After death no such accident happened as both parties learned that when you’d throw stone on some one nest then you won’t be able to save your nest either.
During Home Minster Babar’s era , police took severe actions again terrorists but never touched their families and while in return even police officers got killed but no one touched their families(not talking about 1-2 cases). It is just a silent deal b/w criminals and law that they won’t touch each other families.
Can’t we make a silent deal b/w those kids and law that they won’t kill any one during robbery and in return they wont get kill if they get trap. To me its quite a practical system to save lifes till we get good law enforcement. So many people die during robberies, what a lost. what a lost !!
Is this practicable , what are the flaws of this ? please contribute to this thread. we need safe society where if some one is late and not receiving his cell fon, we don’t start panicing that what has happened ?
Zain: Hope the things will change soon.
O-anon: Whatever the problems are… Karachi still Rocks!!
Ali: I think the situation is not as bad and at least there is a hope for improvement.
Mansoor: you are right we have to change ourselves first.
PPH: Your approach is really nice but the ground realities are different. As there are many categories of professions and professionals some earns upto 5k on the other hand some are highly paid in the same way in this line I mean robbery, snatching etc. there are various categories you called professionals who go for high values and professionals who even snatch a Nokia 3310 (costs 1-1.5K)
Why do they not surrender?? Many reasons some you already mentioned and one (that I think a valid reason) is that usually the boys who involved in such crimes belongs to honorable families and they are frighten to face their family members/relatives after being caught in such crimes.
The worse thing is that some boys even snatch just for enjoyment… I listen some stories like last year during Bakra Eid some boys driving a VTI (applied for registration) and grabbed 2 goats (Bakrai) load them in the car and drive away…
Well what I think is that if our police had been better this thing wouldn’t have started and if it was stopped in its early stages,and the police is so damn corrupted you people wont believe i saw police men snatching mobile phones..what kind of a system are we in I came to Pakistan 2 years back after spending a long time in middle east and i just get shocked everyday when i get out of my house and still after 2 years i am not adjusted to this place..is this the same Pakistan for which many of our ancestors had sacrificed their invaluable lives…
And will this ever change and is there any chance that we will be able to live in a peaceful enivornment which will be free of corruption,crime,….