THE number of road robberies in Karachi has been increasing for years, but there has been a change in tactics recently on the part of the criminals. In most cases, they now show up with modern weapons and in a heavy modern vehicle worth millions of rupees. Their victims, in contrast, often have second-hand vehicles and shabby cellphones.

Our family was recently crossing the Baloch Colony flyover around midnight when our old sedan broke down. There was not even a single streetlight on the road.

As I got out to see if I could somehow fix the car, a shiny hatchback, must be worth around Rs3-4 million, approached us. A man got out of it, threatened us with a pistol, snatched our phones and fled. The shocking part was that a police patrol was less than 500 metres away from the scene.

When we approached the police, they merely told us that the area was not under their jurisdiction, and, therefore, they could not help us.

Karachi is called the city of lights, a metropolis that never sleeps, not even in the dead of the night. However, with the increasing incidents of snatchings, it has become a city of thieves who never sleep.

The authorities must take immediate action to curb the increasing number of robberies in Karachi, and make the city safe again. The police should cooperate with the people instead of hiding behind jurisdictional excuses.

Munib Ali Karachi