Srinagar, Jan 21: Car owners be aware! Your cab may not be safe even when locked inside a garage than to talk of parking lots or elsewhere. With City police failing to make any major breakthrough in the car thefts, the crime has gone so rampant that in the latest, the thieves succeeded in their strike at Nishat house on the City outskirts and decamped with an Alto from the garage.

THE LATEST
 A few days back, the car lifters sneaked into the house of Bashir Ahmed Wani at Brain Nishat and managed to take away the silver color JK01K 0934 cab.
 Bashir, a retired bureaucrat says two cars were parked in the garage adding that the thieves targeted the one in the rare, towards the main gate.
 The complainant said the interesting part of the incident was that the car was expected to the “theft proof.”
 “As per the company manual, the keys were so rare that getting its duplicate wasn’t possible unless the owner sends a request for another key along with a copy of FIR report that the original was lost or stolen… So I am shocked that how could they drive away the car when the keys are still with me,” Bashir told Greater Kashmir.

THE PAST
 The Nishat theft is not the only case. Scores of vehicles have been stolen in the past over a year while the City police has failed to trace most of them.
 A week back, a Santro (JK02M 9595) was stolen from Government Medical College Hostel in Bemina where its owner Dr Ashraf had parked it. Though police claims to have started the investigation, it’s clueless.
 Besides, a white car JK02-AB 7673 was recently stolen from outside JK Bank Barzulla branch which is barely a few furlongs away from Police Station Sadder.

THE EXCEPTION
 But interestingly, past year, there was a breakthrough when the car of a retired Chief Engineer was recovered. The then Divisional Commissioner, Naseema Lanker is understood to have directed the police to trace the vehicle. Incidentally her directions bore fruits. The car was recovered while the retired bureaucrat had hailed Naseema and the then City police Chief Javed Reyaz for their personal efforts in the recovery.
 But that was almost exceptional. Other victims have been waiting to get back their cars while police pleads inability in solving the cases.

GROPING FOR CLUES
 Last year, a Maruti 800 belonging to Gulzar Ahmed Nehvi was stolen from outside a Masjid in Raj Bagh area. Interestingly, the owner was attending a Tableeghi Jamat when the burglars targeted it.
 Since then Gulzar, a Deputy Director with a government department has been moving pillar to post but to no avail.

UNDER POLICE NOSE
 In another case, in August, a Maruti 800 (JK 04 8344) was stolen from near Ram Munshi Police station when its owner Mushtaq Ahmed Qadri had parked it to offer prayers at Syed Sahib (RA) shrine in the area.
 “Since then there’s no clue of the car even though I had immediately filed an FIR,” the Barzulla man added.

POLICE PLEAS
 Despite repeated attempts, the Senior Superintendent of Police Syed Ashique Hussain Bukhari couldn’t be contacted for comment.
 Pertinently, the City police has often been pleading its failure to crack crime cases because of being busy with the unrest of past summer.
 “The summer unrest and a year before that the Shopian episode affected the routine policing,” a senior official told Greater Kashmir.

BOTTOM LINE
 But even though the life is back to normal and Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah himself sometime back asked police to go serious towards the normal policing, car lifters have a day out.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST