Lahore safe haven for criminals, plagued with land grab: Reports

Surge in incidents of land grab in Pakistan’s Lahore has added nearly 30 per cent of crime to the city making it a safe haven for criminals, media reports said.
Due to the surge in the number of housing societies in the city and massive business activities, incidents of the land mafia occupying properties by unlawful means have resulted in crimes in Lahore, increasing fear among locals, Dawn reported. More often than not, local security officials spend most of their time dealing with ‘disputed property matters’ at the cost of controlling street crime, it said.
“Dubious role of a senior police officer in dealing with the land mafia is the talk of the town. There were complaints that the land grabbers dispossessed the owners of their valuable properties under the nose of the police officer,” Dawn reported, citing a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The mafias, who work for the housing societies and readily obtain false documents, have set the land speculators on the rampage in Lahore, reports said.
According to the police department’s official statistics, the number of robberies and other heinous crimes has increased in Lahore by more than 150 per cent, Dawn reported.
According to statistical data, the Saddar division had the highest number of such incidents, with 2,499 robberies, 67 sodomy and 49 child rape cases reported between January and September this year. In all, the data reveals that Lahore reported 1,65,524 incidents of crime during the same period.