Crime in Pakistan

Crime in Pakistan is present in various forms, especially in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Peshawar, Multan, Hyderabad, Islamabad and Quetta. Among other general crimes, it includes major crimes such as murder, rape, kidnapping, armed robbery, burglary, carjacking and corruption. A direct relationship has been identified between the crime rate and unemployment rate in Pakistan. Elevated unemployment diminishes the attractiveness of legal endeavors, consequently raising the potential gains from illicit pursuits. As a result, the likelihood of an upsurge in illegal activities rises. Crime statistics of Pakistan shows that there is a rapid increase in the number of crime reported over time like other countries of the world, mainly due to high unemployment, rising poverty, increasing inflation and urbanization. Some other non-economic factors are also responsible for it.

Quotes

• Confronted with criticism by the United Nations and other international bodies, Pakistan vowed to prevent kidnapping for the purpose of converting members of religious minorities to Islam and to regard conversions of minors forcibly separated from their parents as legally invalid.
  The Shahdadpur verdict goes in a different direction.
  • Massimo Introvigne, "Pakistan, Hindu Families Asked to Pay US$35,000 to Get Back Abducted Children Converted to Islam", Bitter Winter (July 4, 2025)

• …blasphemy allegations are increasingly employed as avenues for extortion. Organized entities often manufacture charges to extract financial gain or seize property, leaving both Muslim and non-Muslim victims with limited avenues for recourse, as defending against such allegations frequently invites further persecution.
  • Massimo Introvigne, "Pakistan: Weaponizing Blasphemy Laws for Stealing Land and Property", Bitter Winter (July 1, 2025)

• There is a new business in Pakistan, and it plays with the life and death of innocent people. It goes like this: hackers post online contents blaspheming Islam in the name of persons who do not even know what is going on. Then they report their victims to the police, who arrest them based on the fabricated blasphemy charges. At this stage, the hackers offer to retract the allegations and tell the police they were based on a “mistake” if the victim pays a significant sum of money. If [the] victims do not pay, [then the] cases go on and they face blasphemy charges which may lead to the death penalty under Pakistani law.
  • Massimo Introvigne, "A Blasphemy Racket in Pakistan: Hundreds Jailed and Blackmailed by Criminal Extremists", Bitter Winter (January 14, 2025)

• The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s (HRCP) report, “Caught in the Crossfire: Civilians, Security and the Crisis of Justice in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Merged Districts” (Lahore: HRCP, 2025), reads like a tragic script for a play the state insists on performing over and over again. The title, “Caught in the Crossfire,” is apt: civilians are literally and figuratively trapped between militants who kill in the name of religion and a government that kills in the name of security.
  The statistics alone are chilling. In July 2025, 82 militant attacks nationwide—two-thirds of them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. By September, 45 attacks in the province killed 54 people, while “security forces reportedly carried out 22 operations… killing 88 militants” but also 24 civilians. The arithmetic of counterterrorism in Pakistan has always been brutal: militants dead, civilians dead, justice dead.
  • A. Sahara Alexander (pseudonym), "Caught in the Crossfire: Human Rights Denied in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa", Bitter Winter (December 31, 2025)

External links

Wikimedia links

• Media related to Crime in Pakistan on Wikimedia Commons
• Encyclopedic article on Crime in Pakistan on Wikipedia

Other links

• "Pakistan’s Independent Journalists Killed, Wounded, Tortured" by Marco Respinti, Bitter Winter (April 29, 2021)