Overall Crime and Safety Situation
The U.S Department of State continues to warn U.S. Citizens to defer non-essential travel to Pakistan. al-Qa’ida and Taliban elements continue to operate inside Pakistan, particularly along the porous Afghan border region. Bombings and assassinations continue to occur throughout the country. Persons considering traveling anywhere within Pakistan are encouraged to read the U.S Department of State’s Travel Alert, which is available electronically at travel.state.gov. This website contains information regarding travel preparedness, health matters, and safety and security issues. Recent articles in the Economist and Time magazines describe Pakistan as the most dangerous place in the world. Karachi has seen recurring violence characterized by random bombings and shootings as well as a large number of incidents of kidnappings for ransom. American citizens, U.S interests, and other Westerners are at risk of becoming targets of violence. The U.S. Consulate General in Karachi has been the target of several major terrorist attacks in recent years. The most recent was a vehicle bomb on March 2, 2006 that killed four people, including two Consulate employees and wounded many others. Due to the assassination of former Prime Minister Bhutto on December 27, 2007, and the riots that took place in Sindh Province following the attack, the below statistics will show a substantial increase in attacks over the previous year. It is not clear at this time who was behind the assassination but it is evident that the attack has caused stability in Sindh to be uncertain at best and chaotic at worst.
Crime and safety in Karachi are major concerns and it is important for visitors to maintain a heightened level of security awareness at all times. Karachi is the ninth largest city in the world and is the business capital of Pakistan with a population of approximately 18 million.
Statistics
The following crime statistics for Karachi are based on reporting by the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) for calendar year 2007. The CPLC is a non-governmental organization (partially funded by the Sindh Government, but most funds come from the business community) working to assist law enforcement, which maintains crime statistics as well as a criminal database. It is difficult to estimate the actual number of cases not reported to the CPLC.
According to CPLC’s statistics for 2006, there were a total of 5,081 reported vehicle thefts in Karachi with an average of 423 stolen per month. For 2007 this number increased slightly to 5,120 with an average of 426 per month. Unlike many other crimes in Karachi, most vehicle thefts are actually reported in hopes that the vehicles will be recovered. Police recovered approximately 47 percent of all reported stolen vehicles in 2007.CPLC murder statistics for 2006 indicate there were a total of 278 terrorist killings, i.e., murders associated with terrorist acts or groups. This number increased in 2007 to 344 terrorist killings, which is an increase of 24 percent.
There were a total of 54,157 incidents of cell phone larceny reported in 2006. This number increased to 99,065 for 2007, which is an increase of 83 percent. A snatching is defined when the phone is taken directly from the person.
No comments:
Post a Comment