PESHAWAR: 45-year-old Kamran Hassan takes out his weather-beaten motorcycle daily to go around shopping malls and major outlets across Peshawar, supplying cosmetics and personal care products that he acquires from wholesalers.
After spending 12-13 hours on his CD-70, he makes enough for his family that includes an 18-year-old daughter.
But for the last year and half, his daily motorcycle run has been interrupted by opportunist criminals. On at least six different occasions, petty criminals have deprived him of valuables.
While making his delivery, he has to leave his motorcycle parked outside the mall or the shop - often unguarded. It is at these times that someone or the other has made away with his valuable products that are worth tens of thousands of rupees and a lot more in labour.
But more than getting robbed, it is his failure to get a complaint registered that has Kamran angry and flummoxed.
“In the initial thefts, the people were wearing masks. But in other instances, their faces are visible on CCTV footage,” he said. “The police says that they won’t register an FIR until I (the complainant) provide the name of the suspect or they capture the thief,” he told Aaj News.
It is not just one police station where has failed to get a complaint registered.
Peshawar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Kashif Aftab Abbas, when asked about the issue, said that a citizen should file a complaint at the 15 helpline in case police stations use delaying tactics in registering an FIR. “We will take legal action against them.”
One of the reasons police stations are reluctant to file FIRs in cases that are unlikely to be solved is to improve their number of complaint closure.
Hassan says he has been deprived of merchandise worth around half a million rupees in these six incidents.
He is just one of the many residents of Peshawar at the whims of the criminal elements and police.
So far, 212 cases of theft have been reported in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa capital this year. There have also been 115 cases of car theft while 226 motorcycles have been stolen during the same period.
