KARACHI: ACLU being reactivated as carjacking surges
By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Aug 20: Almost a year after its power was curtailed, the Anti-Car-Lifting Unit is being reactivated.
Different options are under consideration as to what could be the ideal arrangement to curb carjacking in view of rising vehicular thefts and snatching in the city, said a well-placed senior police officer.
Sources said Capital City Police Officer Waseem Ahmed had recommended to Provincial Police Officer Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak that police be allowed to revert to the old system, which was tried and tested and where a dedicated police unit could tackle the issue of vehicular theft on a full-time basis with the same resources.
Confirming that changes were being considered in the present set-up of the ACLU, CCPO Waseem Ahmed admitted that curtailing of the ACLU’s powers had contributed to the surge in vehicular thefts and snatchings, but he also pointed out that an ever-increasing number of vehicles coming on the roads on a daily basis was also to blame.
On an average, 753 vehicles are being registered daily in Karachi. In 2001, a total of 750,000 vehicles were registered, in 2007, 1,088,000 and in the first seven months of 2008 1,130,000 vehicles have been registered, the city police chief said. This sort of challenge can only be tackled by a dedicated police unit, the CCPO remarked.
The anti-car-lifting cell was notified in 2001 and subsequently it was decided that the cell would be tasked with the investigation and the FIR registration about vehicular thefts would also done at the ACLU. For this purpose, the ACLU police station was also notified.
However, for the convenience of the people, who had to come all the way to the ACLU for FIR registration, it was decided that FIRs could be registered at the relevant police station.
On July 31, 2007, former Provincial Police Officer Major (retd) Ziaul Hasan issued a notification, clipping the powers of the ACLU and reducing its strength by half and distributing its task to the over 100 police stations across the city. As a result, vehicular thefts witnessed a surge, admitted a senior police officer.
Following the notification, people were facing difficulties in getting their final report after thefts from the respective police station. “Vehicular theft is just not a priority of a police station as it has to attend other import matters of much more priority,” observed CCPO Waseem Ahmed.
Earlier, a final report used to be issued by the ACLU office which was fairly transparent and caused much less inconvenience to the complainant.
“The year-long experiment carried out by former PPO Ziaul Hasan backfired with the result that the public had to suffer,” remarked a source.
Police sources explained that the ACLU was established to investigate cases of carjacking and motorcycle lifting. It is headed by a senior superintendent of the police who works under the command of the DIG of Investigations. However, the sources said the ACLU was pressured by successive commanders to prevent these crimes, a duty that lay with the operations branch of the district police.
Official sources said the sanctioned strength of the ACLU was almost 850 officials, but it had never worked at full strength. It had to make do with 350 officials who had to cover all the city’s many exit and entry points to check whether the stolen vehicles were being taken outside Karachi. There are 27 known routes of which three have metalled roads and the rest are dirt tracks.
Sources also blamed the unsatisfactory performance on the lack of coordination between the ACLU and the operations branch of the district police, shortage of vehicles and manpower, and a lack of interest shown by the police hierarchy. Other than the ACLU, district police officials and Rangers personnel also appear helpless in the face of car-jacking incidents, which in some cases have led to major crimes. A case in point is that of a car stolen on July 10 from the parking lot of the Dolmen Shopping Mall, which was found laden with two bombs on July 20, 2007 near the Park Towers parking lot. The stolen car had been moving around in the city for 10 days without being detected by law enforcement agencies that had been put on high alert after the Lal Masjid operation. A probable grave tragedy was averted only because of the information given to the police by an anonymous caller.