New York City shootings soar 97% in 2020, highest in 16 yrs

Agencies

January 2, 2021

New York, Jan 2: There was a 97 per cent jump in the number of shootings and a nearly 45 per cent surge in murders, including 15 consecutive weeks of gunfire, as COVID-19 ravaged New York City in 2020, according to the latest statistics from the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Official sources said on Friday that the NYPD responded to 1,531 shooting incidents across the city's five boroughs in 2020, 754 more than the all of 2019, reports Xinhua news agency.

The NYPD Detective Bureau investigated 462 killings around the city in 2020, 143 more than the year before.

There had not been such alarming violence since 2006, when 1,565 shootings were reported, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea was quoted by the New York Daily News as saying.

At the other end of the grim tally, there were decreases in rapes, robberies and assaults, although the statistics showed jumps in burglaries and car thefts, the sources said.

Overall crime went down, if only slightly, by 0.9 per cent.

As of December 27, 94,314 felony crimes were reported in the city, 845 less than the year before, according to the NYPD statistics.

Local media reports had attributed to the fierce tide of crime to the rampant Covid-19 pandemic and a lowered morale among the police force over a relentless cut of their annual budget for 2021.

NYPD officials have also attributed this year's rise in shootings in part to gang activity, which is often concentrated in poor neighbourhoods where shootings are more prevalent, the newspaper said.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison had said in a recent interview that officers would focus on arresting gang leaders to address the issue.

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Pak jail authorities say Imran Khan is alive and healthy after ‘murder’ rumours spark panic

News Network

November 27,2025

Authorities at Pakistan’s high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on Wednesday dismissed speculation about the condition of imprisoned former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, rejecting rumours that he had been moved out of the facility or was in danger. Officials said Khan was in “good health” and described the viral death claims as “baseless.”

“There is no truth to reports about his transfer from Adiala Jail,” the Rawalpindi prison administration said in a statement, according to Geo News. “He is fully healthy and receiving complete medical attention.”

Amid swirling rumours on social media, Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), urged the federal government to issue an official clarification and demanded that authorities allow his family to meet him immediately, Dawn reported.

The frenzy began after Khan’s three sisters called for an impartial probe into what they described as a “brutal” police assault on them and other PTI supporters outside Adiala Jail last week. Soon after, several social media handles circulated unverified claims alleging that Khan had been “killed” inside the prison.

The rumours intensified when a handle named “Afghanistan Times” claimed that “credible sources” had confirmed Khan’s “murder” and that his body had been moved out of the jail — allegations that have not been verified by any credible agency.

Imran Khan, PTI’s patron-in-chief, has been lodged in the Rawalpindi prison since August 2023 in multiple cases. For over a month, an undeclared restriction has prevented family members and senior PTI leaders from meeting him. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has reportedly been denied access despite making seven attempts.

In a letter to Punjab Police Chief Usman Anwar, Khan’s sisters — Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan, and Dr. Uzma Khan — said they were “peacefully protesting” outside the jail when police allegedly launched an unprovoked assault after streetlights were switched off.

“At 71, I was seized by my hair, thrown to the ground and dragged across the road,” Noreen Niazi said, alleging that other women present were also slapped and manhandled.

Adiala Jail officials reiterated that speculation over Imran Khan’s health was unfounded and insisted that his well-being was being ensured, Geo News reported.

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