Crime rate increases in Punjab over last six months

LAHORE: Punjab witnessed a sharp increase in the crime rate over the last six months.

According to a report issued by the police department, more than 1,600 murder cases were reported.

During the last six months, 5,862 cases of kidnapping and 1,445 cases of rape were registered in the province.

9,940 incidents of motorcycle and car snatching/theft took place while the robbery was reported 6,700 times in Punjab.

The report said over 0.2 million cases were registered in different incidents during the six months.

Nonetheless, Punjab’s capital city Lahore surpassed Karachi and Islamabad in curbing crime and moves 36 steps down from the 138th position with crime index 46.9 in 2018 to 174th (42.06) this year.

The World Crime Index released the updated crime status for 2019. The index lists 319 megacities of the world, including three of Pakistan – Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Karachi and Islamabad dropped 11 and six steps, respectively, in the index of the cities reporting bad crime rate.

As per the Crime Index 2019, Islamabad ranks 232 with the crime index of 32.88 and Karachi 61 with 58.43 crime index.

In 2018, Karachi ranked 50 with crime index 62.20 and Islamabad 226 (38.05) that showed both the cities improved their positions in controlling crime.