Pakistan's Karachi city is witnessing a spike in crime and lawlessness after over 250  locals were shot dead and 1,052 others were wounded by street criminals between 2022 and March 28, 2024, media reports said.

Police sources told Dawn News that a significant increase in violent street crimes was registered over the past three years.

They said before 2022 the number of people killed by muggers stood at around 30, but the figure increased manifold when a total of 111 citizens were killed by muggers in the 12 months of 2022.

Senior police officials have blamed inflation and growing economic difficulties in last three years as reasons behind the spike in crime.

Besides, they also blamed ‘bad policing’ particularly at a lower level and blamed SHOs for allegedly running ‘vice dens’ within their jurisdiction instead of controlling crime, reported Dawn News.

Loss of confidence on police

Former CPLC chief Sharafuddin Memon told Dawn that citizens had also lost confidence in law enforcers and started resisting robbers.

The citizens have started showing ‘reaction’ over unabated street crimes and dacoits who were already in ‘panic condition’ were retaliating and killing citizens, he added.

New strategy to tackle the situation

West Zone DIG Irfan Ali Baloch told Dawn that police had changed their strategy to curb street crimes.

Elaborating, he said they were collecting information about the domicile of street criminals and where they lived.