The terrifying stories are spread in local newspapers and told in hushed tones at tea stalls and bus stops: another day, another brutal death in an armed robbery in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city .
Last Wednesday, a car mechanic was shot dead by attackers who tried to steal his phone. The day before, thieves had killed in two separate incidents a second-hand shoe seller who refused to hand over his phone and a businessman who had just withdrawn money from a bank. A few days earlier, thieves killed a 27-year-old mechanical engineer, stealing his phone, money and motorcycle.
In Pakistan’s economic powerhouse Karachi, the rate of violent crime has soared. This has created a feeling that no place is safe in this metropolis of 20 million people and has led many to worry that the city will return to its violent and chaotic past. The country’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, called for a “large-scale operation” against street criminals.
“The fear of attack hits you every time you go out,” said Shamim Ali, 43, a factory worker who said he had been attacked twice in recent months. “Criminals operate boldly in broad daylight. »
The number of reported homicides, extortion attempts and motorcycle thefts has almost doubled this year compared to the same period last year, according to the government-backed Citizens-Police Liaison Committee. At least 58 people were killed in assaults in the first five months of 2024, almost double the number recorded during this period in 2023, according to police records. Human rights activists say the true toll of violent crime is likely higher because many victims are reluctant to report cases.
One of the main factors behind the rise in crime, experts and police officials say, is Pakistan’s economic crash, the worst in decades, with mounting debt, widening trade deficits and record inflation. . Another contributor: 2022’s record floods and other natural disasters that sent tens of thousands of farmers to the city in search of work. Few have found it.
The sense of despair among the city’s poorest has deepened as economic collapse and population growth have strained local government’s already limited capacity to provide basic services like water and sanitation, activists said.
The rise in crime is the result of “systemic injustices and the state’s failure to live up to its responsibilities,” said Qazi Khizer, vice-chairman of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “Decades of neglect of the city have created a pressure cooker ready to explode,” he added.
Desperation has breathed new life into the city’s criminal gangs, which have found recruits among the burgeoning young population, police officials said. Some of the assaults that turned into killings are also linked to militant groups that have re-emerged elsewhere in the country in recent years, said Raja Umar Khattab, a senior official in the anti-terrorism department of the Karachi police.
Mr Ali, the factory worker who was the victim of two recent attacks, said the latest one happened around 9am one day at his usual spot for breakfast in a working-class area. As he was having a cup of tea, four armed robbers burst inside.
“Hand over your phones and wallets, now!” the thieves shouted, warning customers not to resist, according to Mr. Ali. Within minutes, the thieves stole the valuables of the two dozen people present.
The rise in violence has taken the city back a decade ago, when armed branches of political parties, Taliban militants and criminal gangs controlled large swathes of the city, their turf battles frequently spilling into the streets. The television news was filled with reports of murders every night. Family members checked on each other every day to make sure they got home from work alive. Others have barely left their homes.
An operation by paramilitaries starting in 2013 to flush out militants restored order. Murders fell from about 3,100 in 2012 to 508 in 2020, according to police data.
But today, the fear – and outrage – has returned. “The government seems to have abandoned the people of Karachi to the mercy of thieves,” said Syed Akhtar Hussain, 70. His 38-year-old son, Syed Ali Rehbar, was shot dead in January by thieves who accosted him while he was delivering food. for a carpooling application.
On a recent afternoon, at a bustling tea stall along a main Karachi road, dozens of taxi drivers, businessmen and university students nursed their steaming cups and chatted to each other. shadow of the trees. Almost everyone watched the street warily, suspecting that any motorcyclist passing by might be a thief in disguise.
“Before 2014, our worries were ethnic violence and stray bullets from gang wars,” said Muhammad Zaheer, a 33-year-old computer trader. “The security operation brought peace for a few years, but now the fear is different. Street criminals won’t hesitate to kill if you resist giving up your phone.
Social media has only added to the collective anxiety. Every day, new videos circulate showing thieves brazenly grabbing valuables in broad daylight on busy streets, in restaurants, at traffic lights, in barbers and even in mosques.
Faced with mounting public anger, political leaders rushed to find solutions. Authorities have launched regulations to control the sale of used phones and motorcycles – items frequently targeted in attacks. The city’s mayor, Murtaza Wahab, has promised to install thousands of surveillance cameras. Others, including the province’s governor and some political parties and professional associations, have called for a tougher approach, including military intervention and the issuance of gun licenses so residents can protect themselves.
Last month, Mr. Zardari, the country’s president, ordered the provincial government to launch an operation against street criminals in Karachi, but no such action has yet been launched. Experts warn that a crackdown could make the problem worse.
“Historically, pressure on police to deliver rapid results leads to violent and coercive practices such as staged murders, custodial torture, arbitrary detentions and shoot-to-kill policies,” said Zoha Waseem, an expert on Pakistani policing at the University of Warwick in Britain. . “A police response is not a long-term solution,” she added.
Public trust in the police – already shaken by years of corruption and inefficiency – collapsed after many officers were implicated in street crimes. In January alone, more than 55 Karachi police officers were suspended on suspicion of being involved in or receiving bribes from criminal groups.
Some residents are taking matters into their own hands, leading to a worrying rise in vigilante justice.
Last Wednesday, a crowd, enraged by a theft, chased two fleeing men, killing one and injuring the other. The day before, a mob had lynched another man suspected of theft. Three days earlier, police had narrowly saved three robbery suspects from a lynching.
“Late public frustration is dangerously normalizing mob violence,” said Muhammad Nafees, a crime and violence expert associated with the Islamabad-based Center for Security Research and Studies. “These mobs inflict punishment based on mere suspicion, endangering both the innocent and the guilty. »
