The horrific stories were splashed across local newspapers and whispered at tea stalls and bus stops: another day, another armed robbery, another brutal death in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.
Last Wednesday, a car mechanic was shot and killed by a robber who was trying to steal a mobile phone. The previous day, robbers killed a second-hand shoe seller who refused to hand over his mobile phone and a businessman who had just withdrawn cash from the bank in two separate incidents. A few days ago, robbers killed a 27-year-old mechanical engineer and stole his mobile phone, cash and motorcycle.
In Karachi, Pakistan’s economic powerhouse, violent crime rates have soared. This has created a sense that no part of the metropolis of 20 million people is safe and has many worried that the city is returning to its violent, chaotic past. The country’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, called for a “massive operation” against street criminals.
“Every time you go out, you have the fear of being robbed,” said Shamim Ali, 43, a factory worker who said he had been robbed twice in recent months. “Criminals commit crimes in broad daylight with impunity.”
The number of homicides, extortion attempts and motorcycle thefts reported this year has almost doubled compared with the same period last year, according to the government-backed Citizens Police Liaison Committee. Police records show that at least 58 people were killed in robberies in five months of 2024, a number that was almost double the same period in 2023. Human rights activists say the true death toll from violent crime is likely higher because many victims are reluctant to report cases.
Experts and police officials say a major driver of the surge in crime is Pakistan’s economic collapse, its worst in decades, with soaring debt, a widening trade deficit and record inflation. Another factor: Record-breaking floods and other natural disasters in 2022 sent tens of thousands of farmers into cities in search of work. Very few people find it.
Activists say the sense of desperation among the city’s poorest has deepened as a collapsing economy and a booming population have limited the ability of local governments to provide basic services such as water and sanitation.
Qazi Haizer, deputy chairman of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said the rising crime rate was the result of “systemic injustice and the state’s failure to take responsibility”. “Decades of neglect of the city have created a pressure cooker ready to explode,” he added.
Police officials say that desperation has breathed new life into the city’s criminal gangs, which have recruited new members from a swelling youth population. Raja Omar Khattab, a senior official in Karachi police’s counter-terrorism unit, said some cases of robberies that turned into murders were also linked to militant groups that have seen a resurgence elsewhere in the country in recent years.
Mr. Ali, a factory worker who has been the victim of two recent robberies, said the latest attack occurred around 9 a.m. one day at a place where he often had breakfast in a low-income neighborhood. While he was drinking tea, four armed robbers broke in.
“Hurry up and hand over your phone and wallet!” the thief yelled, warning customers not to resist, according to Mr Ali. Within minutes, the robbers had stolen valuables from the two dozen people there.
The surge in violence has taken the city back to about a decade ago, when armed factions of political parties, Taliban fighters and criminal gangs controlled large swaths of the city, with their turf wars often spilling into the streets. Television newscasts are filled with reports of murders every night. Families check on each other every day to make sure they are still alive when they return from get off work. Others barely left home.
A paramilitary-led operation to clear out militants that began in 2013 restored order. Police data shows murders dropped sharply from about 3,100 in 2012 to 508 in 2020.
Now, however, the fear and anger are back. “The government seems to have abandoned the residents of Karachi in the hands of robbers,” said 70-year-old Syed Akhtar Hussain, whose son Syed Ali Rai, 38, Syed Ali Rehbar was shot and killed by robbers while delivering food in January.
On a recent afternoon at a bustling tea stall on one of Karachi’s main thoroughfares, dozens of taxi drivers, businessmen and college students chatted over steaming cups of tea under the shade of a tree. Nearly everyone watched the streets warily, suspecting that a passing motorcyclist might be a robber in disguise.
“Before 2014, we were worried about ethnic violence and stray bullets from gang wars,” said Muhammad Zaheer, a 33-year-old computer trader. “Security operations brought a few years of peace, but now, the fear is different. Street criminals won’t hesitate to kill if you refuse to hand over your phone.
Social media only exacerbates collective anxiety. New videos circulate every day showing robbers brazenly snatching valuables in broad daylight on busy streets, restaurants, traffic lights, barber shops and even mosques.
As public anger grows, political leaders scramble for solutions. Officials have introduced regulations to control the sale of second-hand cellphones and motorcycles – items that are often targeted for robberies. The city’s mayor, Murtaza Wahab, has pledged to install thousands of monitors. Others, including provincial governors and some political parties and business associations, have called for tougher measures, including military intervention and the issuance of gun licenses so residents can protect themselves.
Last month, the country’s President Zardari directed the provincial government to launch an operation against street crime in Karachi, but such operations have not yet begun. Experts warn the crackdown could exacerbate the problem.
Zoha Waseem, an expert on Pakistani policing at the University of Warwick, said: “Historically, pressure on police to deliver results quickly has led to violent, coercive practices such as staged encounter killings, custodial torture, The policy of arbitrary detentions and shootings “is not a long-term solution,” she added.
Trust in the police has been eroded by years of corruption and inefficiency after dozens of officers were implicated in street crimes. In January alone, more than 55 Karachi police officers faced suspension for allegedly participating in criminal syndicates or receiving kickbacks from criminal syndicates.
Some residents are taking matters into their own hands, leading to a worrying increase in vigilante justice.
Last Wednesday, a mob angry over looting chased two fleeing men, killing one and injuring another. The day before, a mob lynched another man on suspicion of robbery. Three days ago, police nearly rescued three robbery suspects from a lynching.
“Simmering public discontent is dangerously normalizing mob violence,” said Mohammad Nafis, an expert on crime and violence at the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. “These thugs are punishing innocent people based solely on suspicion. and the guilty are at risk.”
