Mobile phone snatching grips Karachi

Nasir Hussain, 30, was driving home from work when a man riding a motorcycle intercepted his car on a busy Tariq Road junction in Karachi and at gun-point snatched his mobile telephone.

The man whizzed away through the traffic-choked road, leaving a deeply shaken Hussain in his car.

"It was the peak evening rush hour, but I dare not resist," Hussain said. "He waived his pistol into my face and was gone like a flash."

Like thousands of other victims whose mobile telephones were snatched by a new young gun-wielding breed of street criminal in recent months, Hussain also did not bother to lodge a police complaint. "What use would it be? I am not going to get my phone back," Hussain said.

Mobile telephone snatching is the latest crime wave that has gripped the sprawling city of Karachi in recent months.

Since January 1, police have lodged complaints of more than 11,500 cases of mobile telephone snatching or theft. "It is a major street crime these days," Sharfuddin Memon, chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) told Gulf News. "There even have been fatalities during these incidents. The number is not big, but still it is alarming," he said.

A couple of days ago, a doctor working at the state-run Jinnah Hospital was shot and killed in southern Gizri neighourhood by gunmen when he resisted the snatching of his cellular telephone.

Memon said most of the criminals involved in mobile telephone snatching were not hardcore criminals. "They are young boys, even many belonging to middle class families, who are involved in this crime to make quick money," he said. Gulshan-e-Iqbal, parts of posh Defence Housing Authority neighbourhood, Haideri and Tariq Road are some of the key places where the number of telephone snatching are alarmingly high, Memon said.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who visited Karachi this week, took serious notice of the growing incidents of mobile phone theft.

"A specialised task force will be created to deal with this menace," he told reporters in Karachi on Saturday.

Memon said authorities were working to stop the sale of stolen telephones, but the success had been mixed. "We are urging the people to note down the manufacturing number of their telephones so that they can be blocked with the help of the mobile phone companies if they are stolen," he said.

"In the last six months, we have blocked around 650 telephones and handed over 56 telephones to their owners," he said.

Mohsin Raza, a businessman dealing in auto parts, said that after losing one of his expensive telephones, he has started using a "very cheap" one.

"The criminals go for fancy and expensive sets, not the basic one which I have," he said.

"In Karachi one should not travel in an expensive car or display his fancy electronic gadgets without the escort of armed guards. A humble, simple lifestyle perhaps is a way to keep criminals at bay."