KARACHI: Karachi police said they had 42 encounters with suspects over the past week, killing six alleged robbers and arresting 57 others, 38 of them wounded, a police spokesperson said.
Police also arrested more than 894 suspects across the city during the week, the spokesperson said. Officers recovered drugs worth millions of rupees from suspected traffickers, 150 illegal weapons of various types and 44 motorcycles. Cases have been registered against those arrested, and investigations are continuing, the spokesperson said.
The announcement comes as Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and commercial hub, struggles with street crime, a problem on which official and independent figures paint a mixed picture.
According to Central Police Office Sindh data, the city recorded 16,463 cognizable offenses from January to June 2026, a 0.49% increase from the same period last year, though overall street crime fell 11.77%. The same report said total homicides in the first half reached 264, including 40 people killed while resisting robberies. It also said assaults on police rose to 572 from 337 a year earlier.
Figures from the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, a civilian-police group, show continuing pressure. The group recorded 24,195 street crime incidents from January to May 2026, and 56 people died in firing and other violent incidents in May alone. A search of public reporting found no consolidated total of deaths at the hands of criminals for the full year to date.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was told at a review meeting that major crimes, terrorism-related incidents and street crimes had declined significantly in the first half of 2026, and that police conducted 2,184 encounters in that period, up from 1,574 a year earlier.
Business leaders say conditions remain troubling. On Oct. 11, Businessmen Group Chairman Zubair Motiwala called for a coordinated drive to rescue the city, citing crumbling roads, water shortages, unreliable utilities, deteriorating sewerage and rampant street crime in a city he said contributes 67% of federal revenue and 54% of national exports.
Last October, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry warned members that several traders had received extortion slips accompanied by live bullets. In May, Sindh's opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party warned that traders were again receiving extortion slips and said police had failed to protect the business community.
The picture is not uniform: at a May meeting with the provincial police chief, traders expressed confidence in the Sindh government's and police's anti-crime measures.
Residents also face daily hardships beyond crime. An analysis in August described unreliable water supplies, overcrowded transport, damaged roads and piles of garbage among the everyday realities behind the city's poor liveability rankings.
Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said in April that long-delayed works on University Road remained incomplete after five years, and that the city's water supply depends largely on private tankers.
Opposition parties blame the provincial government, led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, for the state of the city. The PPP rejects that. Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said in October that the federal government has always treated Karachi unfairly, including over its water share.
The dispute has fueled a debate over how Karachi should be governed. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, a federal coalition partner, has pushed for new provinces or administrative units.
At a September seminar, party chairman Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui argued that provinces should be divided on the basis of population to improve governance, and the chamber's president spoke in favor of new units and an empowered local government system. In February, senior MQM-P leader Mustafa Kamal said the Constitution allows the federation to assume control of a city.
The PPP strongly opposes the idea. Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Shah said the country was struggling to manage four administrative units, and the party has said it would not allow Sindh to be divided. The Sindh Assembly has also passed a resolution against creating a Karachi province.
