LAHORE – Bilal Gunj Old Spare Parts and Auto Market on Jilani Road has been involved in the sale and purchase of snatched and stolen vehicles since decades, apparently with the blessings of police high-ups and politicians, reveals a survey conducted by TheNation.
It would not be an understatement to say that this illegal business is continuing, in fact flourishing, right under the nose of senior police officers. Just consider the fact that the market is encircled by the offices of SSP (Operations), Lahore CTO, City Division SPs (Operations and Investigation), and Lower Mall and Data Darbar SHOs!
According to the survey, more than 700 shops in this market sell spare parts of motorcars, motorbikes, irons, cooling fans, air conditioners, refrigerators, water pumps and other electronic gadgets at shockingly low prices.
Similarly, cars of different companies and models can be assembled by the mechanics at the market, using spare parts of similar vehicles stolen or snatched from every part of the country, for even less than one-half of the original price.
At least five cars and 10 motorbikes are lifted from Lahore daily and most of them are scrapped at the Bilal Gunj market to be later sold as spare parts to customers belonging to all economic strata of society. These spare parts are also ‘exported’ to other cities, including Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sahiwal, Okara, Sukkur and Hyderabad.
Even the shopkeepers agree that police concerned never lodge genuine cases of robbery against them. “Only fake cases of impounding unnamed property are registered and are later quashed when we grease the palms of police officers,” says a shopkeeper on condition of anonymity.
Interestingly, City Division SP (Operations) Multan Khan also endorses this assertion, saying no FIR has been lodged against any of the shopkeepers of the Bilal Gunj market. “Vehicles plying on City roads are checked by the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) and Anti-Vehicles Cars Lifting Staff (AVCLS) on daily basis. In case a stolen engine is being used in any car, it should be booked,” he states the obvious.
Answering a query, the SP says the police cannot initiate action against any office-bearer of the Bilal Gunj Old Spare Parts and Auto Market Union until he is nominated in an FIR. “Dacoits, robbers and carjackers have never confessed to selling engines or cars to anyone in the aforesaid market.” The SP, however, fails to justify the huge difference in prices at shops in the Bilal Gunj market and authorised shops of companies.
The comparison between prices of spare parts being sold at authorised shops of companies and the ones in the Bilal Gunj market, given in the table, also strengthens the claim that snatched and stolen cars are brought to be sold at the Bilal Gunj market.
Bilal Gunj Old Spare Parts and Auto Market President Dr Kazim Ali Agha says Lower Mall and Data Darbar police seize their containers and trucks loaded with spare parts under section 550 of PPC just to mint money. “The police cannot lodge cases of robbery or dacoity against shopkeepers since the latter have legal receipts and documents to prove legal ownership of whatever they are selling,” he states.
Dr Agha, however, admits, like other departments, the Bilal Gunj market also has black sheep, who are involved in selling and purchasing snatched or stolen vehicles and their parts. “I personally check legal documents and only then a car is scratched at the Bilal Gunj market,” he adds.
Answering a query, Dr Agha said the police and custom departments harass the local shopkeepers, but never take action against carjackers who sell at least 100 engines of cars in the market daily. “I have identified several stolen engines and informed the police, but they never take legal action against the shopkeepers concerned,” says Dr Agha, adding the city police are involved in minting money rather than discouraging those who are involved in illegal business.
An AVCLS DSP says they have sufficient evidence that professional carjackers lift cars and motorbikes and sell them in the Bilal Gunj market. He informs cars and motorbikes are picked or snatched and later parked at more than 350 underground parking lots in the City.
“The low quality and old model cars are dismantled at the Bilal Gunj market, while the new and imported ones are smuggled to the tribal areas from where middle-men, mostly from the Police and Excise and Taxation Departments, contact their owners to sign a deal with them; otherwise, these vehicles are dismantled,” he says. He adds the AVCLS can do nothing about this because the network of lifters is so strong that they can even remove the tracking device from cars before stealing them.
An office-bearer of the Anjuman-e-Tajran Bilal Gunj Market asserts in case the market is sealed, 95 percent cars plying in the City would be off-road because spare parts used in them have been supplied from here. He, however, claims each spare part is obtained after paying duty and these parts are imported from Japan, China, Singapore, Korea, Dubai, Australia, Bangkok, etc.
Secondly, there is a union comprising 1,800 members, mostly shopkeepers, union councilors and politicians, who resist the police department and other law enforcement agencies with force. “This is a major hurdle. The management of the union belongs to the PML-N and the PML-Q, so one can take action against them,” a leader says on condition of anonymity.
The same management is allegedly patronised by the influentials, especially the Police Department, while fabricated documents are obtained by the Excise and Taxation Department in connection with a mutual working relationship between them.
On the other hand, the AVCLS head says the trend of dismantling cars and motorbikes at the Bilal Gunj market has significantly increased during the last few years. He says more than 150 cars and 300 motorbikes are picked on monthly basis from Lahore but only a few are recovered.