Pakistani crime busters help police solve cases

KARACHI, Sep 5 (Reuters) On the mean streets of Pakistan's biggest city, crime-weary citizens fed up with a wave of kidnappings look to a private crime fighting unit for help.

The unit, run by businessman Sharfuddin Memon, is trying to bridge the gulf that all too often exists between the police and those they're meant to serve in a country where people shy away from reporting crimes to regular law enforcement officials due to their reputation for corruption.

''We are not there to confront the police. We are there to support them and the victims,'' Memon, head of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), told Reuters in an interview at his headquarters in Karachi.

''We have played a major role in not only controlling the crime situation in the city but also building the confidence of the people in the police,'' said Memon, sitting behind a tidy desk upon which five telephones constantly rang off the hook.

''I'm proud that people have confidence in us and come to us with their problems. We are in the loop between them and the police,'' said Memon, smartly dressed in a shirt and tie, wearing glasses and sporting a neatly trimmed beard.

Kidnapping, extortion and domestic violence against women are the most common crimes with which Memon and his team contend.

Since taking over as CPLC chief, Memon has faced death threats from vengeful criminals that have made him always travel with police guards.

But despite the dangers Memon, who is in his late 40s and has barely had time for his family or his construction business since taking over as CPLC chief, said he is addicted to fighting crime.

''When I say addiction I mean enjoying the high of helping out people and bringing down criminals. It gives you an enjoyment and self-satisfaction which is unavailable in any other line of work,'' he said.

His private police unit has been very successful at solving kidnappings and has a 70 per cent success rate, Memon said.

KIDNAPPINGS RIFE IN KARACHI Families whose relatives were kidnapped often turn to Memon's citizens police unit for help rather than the regular police.

The CPLC informs the police of the kidnapping and helps the victim's family by setting up phone tracking and voice recognition devices to locate the kidnappers during the ransom negotiations.

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