Saga of motorcycle snatching

There is startling data regarding snatching of motorcycles in the city of Karachi. According to Citizen Police Liaison Committee better known as CPLC, an average of 167 motorcycles were stolen or snatched daily in the first four months of 2024. This means total number of motorcycles snatched during this period amounted to 20,152.

This represents an increase in this crime from the previous year in which 156 motorcycles were stolen or snatched daily. The total of such snatched vehicles in 2023 reached 18,953 and the way things are going and statistics are predicting this year the number will increase and surpass last year’s statistics.

The figures presented by CPLC are just that. Cold hard figures that do not reflect the stories behind these snatchings and the drama and emotional strains of each individual such act. To understand the whole scenario, it is essential to understand the pivotal importance and position of a motorcycle in a middle class family. A motorcycle is the lifeline of most middle class families. The breadwinner of the family uses this vehicle to get to work but, in most households, there is first the trip to the neighborhood school to drop off the children.

Daily groceries might be the next stop and the whole exercise is repeated in the afternoon when schools get off.

Evening has its own compulsions comprising of birthday parties the children insist on attending or later attendance at weddings where the whole family has to be adjusted on this two-wheeler wonder which has this amazing capacity to accommodate unlimited number of travelers who over the years have acquired such skills as hanging on to handle bars and other parts of the motorcycle with such dexterity as would shame the best circus workers in the world.

Now do you understand why an ordinary person with no history of combat suddenly attempts to confront a motorcycle snatcher and at times sacrifice his life attempting to save his motorcycle which for him and his family is their entire universe. Those travelling in shiny new four wheelers with armed guards in the back will never understand why a middle class person sacrifices his life to save his motorcycle.

The CPLC data uncovers the number of motorcycles stolen or snatched but does not give any figures of recovered and returned to owner. Not many people who lose their motorcycles get them back in a hurry or as soon as it is recovered. The preferential method would be for police to maintain an updated database of motorcycles snatched or stolen with contact numbers of owners.

As soon as a motorcycle is recovered the owner is contacted and requested to come over with relevant papers so that his vehicle is returned to him. This is not exactly how it happens.

According to my meagre knowledge, there is a lot of red tape involved and mostly all stolen or snatched vehicles have to be repossessed through courts.

With the overwhelming number of cases in courts it probably takes a while before the owner can get its hands on his own property. In the meantime, brand new motorcycles lying in the open at various police stations in the city keep gathering dust and rust.

This can be witnessed at any police station where not only motorcycles but cars, trucks, buses and even 8 and 16 wheelers can be seen rusting away with no one to care about this national loss. It is not only the rust and dust but some vital parts like batteries, etc., mysteriously disappear right in front of the noses of the authorities and the owners of the vehicles who manage to get back their possessions are too overwhelmed to even lodge a protest.

The honourable Governor Sindh has announced a plan to make amends to those whose motorcycles were stolen. He announced that he will distribute reconditioned motorcycles to those whose motorcycles were snatched in the last three months of the year gone by.

While this is a commendable move it would be better still if the owners whose vehicles have been recovered were also immediately handed over possession of their recovered vehicles and a simple procedure adopted for the return of such vehicles whether involved in an accident or snatched and recovered.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024