GILGIT: Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gilgit Zahoor Ahmed has announced a crackdown on criminal activities in the region.
During a media talk at the Gilgit Union Office Zahoor Ahmed stated that a special team has been formed to eradicate drug trafficking in the district.He also mentioned that security measures have been tightened for the full security of Chinese working in district Gilgit.
Zahoor Ahmed warned that strict legal action will be taken against individuals spreading religious hatred on social media.He emphasized that maintaining peace in Gilgit is a top priority and that merit-based actions will be taken to achieve this goal without exceptions.
The SSP also mentioned that efforts are being made to reduce motorbike theft in the region and that several motorcycles have been recovered so far.He assured that every possible step will be taken to eliminate crime from Gilgit.
Meanwhile, drastic progress has been made across the world in the past two centuries, in terms of education, technology and economy. Despite their struggle with issues that negatively impact society, developed economies have been at the forefront of this advancement.
For instance, in 2022, the crime rate per 1,000 people in the UK was 79.2. According to Russell Contreras, the justice and race reporter at Axios, 387.8 violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery) per 100,000 inhabitants in the US were reported, in the same year.
Even with generally high literacy rates and enormous financial, technical and human resources, the world’s leading nations have been unable to significantly reduce crime rate. So although it seems implausible that there exists a region with almost zero crime rate, an anomaly does exist, and that too in a developing country such as ours.
Located in northern Pakistan, Baltistan boasts of beautiful valleys and mountains including the famous K2, the second highest mountain in the world. Comprising Skardu, Shigar, Kharmang and Ghanche, Baltistan’s total area is 31,000 km2 and the population is 303,214. During 2009-2021, negligible crime rate was reported here.
In Ghanche, that has a population of 160,000, no crime was reported during 2007-2017. “The crime rate here is quite negligible,” confirms chief of police Jan Muhammad in Nisar Ali’s report in the April 14, 2021 edition of Arab News. Ghanche has not seen an armed robbery or serious crime such as murder in the past decade and the last reported murder took place some 15 years ago.
Baltistan isn’t coincidentally a safe region. It’s because of some particular factors that this region gets to enjoy its safe-place reputation. A number of psychological theories may be used to explain why the crime rate is low in Baltistan.
