Valley outskirts emerge as crime hubs, say cops
Police have unlocked another mystery: The outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley, undergoing a gradual process of urbanisation, are emerging as new crime hubs.
According to police, the Valley’s suburbia have seen some serious crimes, including murder, in recent times. Those areas include the places outside the Ring Road periphery— Kapan, Kadghari, Jorpati, Budanilkantha, Tokha, Sankhu, Manamaiju, Gokarna, and some others.
Murder of Gobinda Dhungana, a loader at the Tribhuvan International Airport, on December 5 and other frequently recorded cases of hooliganism, burglaries and lootings on the Valley outskirts is an evidence to suggest that criminal activities are on the rise in the suburbia.
On December 23, Harka Bahadur Diyali, a jewellry shop owner, was murdered at Kapan. “Apart from murder cases, police have also recovered dead bodies in these areas every now and then,” said DSP Dhiraj Pratap Singh, spokesman of the Metropolitan Police Range (MPR) Kathmandu. The Valley outskirts are crime-prone zones that need immediate police attention, he said.
Naikap, situated near Thankot (the entry point to the Capital), also saw looting of jewellery and property worth Rs 1,75,000 on August 24 at the house of Foken Mahat.
Similarly, robbers decamped with property worth Rs 1,100,000 on September 25 from the house of Prem Kala Tiwari at Manamaiju. Burglaries were also recorded at Gokarna, Budanilkantha, Shivapuri, and Gothatar, among others.
On November 1, looters barged into Shivapuri Cottage. In the incident, burglars, who had come in a group of five, had robbed foreign tourists who had been staying there. Property worth Rs 444,000 was looted in the incident.
According to DSP Singh, apart from the rising cases of thefts, burglaries and other crimes, criminals have often used these areas as safe hideouts.
“Owing to the thin police vigilance and settlement, these areas are also used as safe and easy hideouts by criminals very often,” said DSP Singh. “To put forth just one instance, we arrested a person involved in the murder of Diyali on December 23 from Jorpati on the same night of murder.”
According to him, with development that urbanisation propels, a particular area also faces the problems of crime, a universal trend. “The process of transformation of a village into city always gives birth to increased criminal cases as the by-product,” said Singh. “Keeping in mind the ensitivity of these areas in terms of public security and crime, we are working to identify the main crime-prone areas and deploy more security personnel to increase police vigilance.”
Two months ago, the MPR built a separate police station at Kadaghari. In view of the demand of public security, police increased the number of police personnel at Kapan from 12 to 25. “In a bid to tighten security, we have increased Long Route Patrols (LRP) headed by around 10 armed police personnel in the crime prone areas,” Singh said.
Although police don’t have the exact number of crimes recorded in the Valley outskirts, a conservative data compiled by the MPR states the Gothatar area recorded 35 thefts, a couple of murders and 15 robberies and Manamaiju saw 32 cases of burglary.
Posted on: 2012-02-05 08:06
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