HYDERABAD:
As the crimes like robberies, snatching, theft, vehicle lifting and drug peddling show no relent; the Hyderabad police shot dead 28 suspects and injured 150 others in 170 encounters in 2024.
However, the crime fighting against narcotics arguably remained dismal as evident by low recovery of the drugs like heroin and ice.
The police spokesman Awais Rajput shared the statistics of the year-long police action on Sunday.
In the outgoing year the Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, who was elected from a constituency in Hyderabad, had spearheaded action against the outlaws involved in the murky business of narcotics.
However, the police could recover only a meagre 240 grams of heroin and 1.29 kilogrammes of ice from the drug peddlers, unmistakably reflecting a lack of resolve on their part to take on the narcotics trade.
Meanwhile, the spokesman claimed that 105 large gangs of criminals were busted in 2024 while 194 vehicle lifters, 1,229 street criminals, 132 robbers, 35 mobile snatchers, three kidnappers and 5,235 thieves and waylayers were also arrested.
Rajput told that the police also caught 405 absconders and 1,293 fugitives besides 386 suspects who were booked in 394 miscellaneous cases.
As many as 798 moonshine liquor sellers were apprehended and booked in 456 cases while the police also rounded up 1,108 mainpuri and gutka manufacturers and sellers and charged them in 788 FIRs. The police also picked up 416 bettors, nominating them in 88 cases and recovering a paltry sum of Rs588,295 cash from their possession.
Apparently, small betting dens fell under the police radar as evident from the low recovery during a 12 months long period. The big betters deal in amounts ranging from millions to tens of millions. As per the shared figures, a total of 11,412 suspects wanted in an array of crimes were put behind the bars in 2024.
Sharing details of the recovery, Rajput apprised that 5,221 liters of moonshine liquor, 262 bottles of imported liquour and 2,205 of the local ones, 742,980 sachets of Indian gutka, 248,861 of mainpuri and 2,475 gunny bags of mainpuri’s raw materials were also seized from the suspects.
Some 622 kgs of hashish, a Kalashnikov, 15 shotguns, 374 pistols, 41 revolvers and thousands of live ammunition were also recovered. The police impounded 45 four wheelers and 185 motorbikes, with a combined worth of Rs39.825 million, under CrPC section 550. The case property retrieved from the suspects this year has been calculated at around Rs61.744 million.
