KARACHI: The Sindh Police has started gathering details of kidnappers and cases of kidnappings for their database that will be compiled in their ‘yellow book’.
Similar to the Crime Investigation Department’s Red Book that contains details of all terrorists, the yellow book will contain details of all criminals involved in abductions in the past 20 years. The data collection for the book has begun but the officials admit it will take them several months to cover research of this scope. They are collecting data from all over Sindh.
“This is not an easy job,” claimed SSP Muqaddas Haider, the chief of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) that deals with kidnapping cases in the province.
“We have to go back to the historical record, which spans over tens of thousands of pages of FIRs, court records, witness statements and police files.”
Kidnapping is a lucrative activity for the several gangs and militant groups working in the province. According to police estimates, approximately 100 to 200 people are kidnapped for ransom every year. The numbers of cases that go unreported are extraordinary. Officials feel the ‘business’ has seen a boost in recent years. “Earlier, it was only groups operating from rural Sindh or the local groups were involved in kidnappings,” claimed a director of the Sindh Rangers Special Task Force, Najeeb Danawala.
“For the past few years, kidnappings increased after the militants and gangsters found them to be a lucrative business.”
Danawala believed, however, that the trend has seen a decline once again due to a large number of kidnappers being killed.
“Obviously, the criminal goes on back foot when there is a massive risk of life.”
Even the officials of the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) agree that there has been a reduction in kidnappings.
Internews
