Criminal justice system is the major reason of lawlessness:IGP

Lahore: There is a dire need to remove flaws in the criminal justice system to control crimes and ensure the provision of justice to the people besides aggressive policing to eliminate criminals. All the institutions would unanimously have to form a comprehensive policy so that the investigations and prosecution could be made foolproof by protecting the witnesses to get the criminals punished.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Muhammad Habib-ur-Rehman stated this while addressing a ceremony held in honour of Bahawalpur police to acknowledge their tremendous performance in Lahore today. Additional-IG (Training) Mubarak Athar, DIG (Operations) Lahore Muhammad Tahir Rai, DPO Bahawalpur Sohail Tajak, his team, MPA Dr Saeed Elahi, industrialist Qamar Zaman and a large number of businessmen were also present on this occasion.

The provincial police chief said that the trade and economy depends upon security and law and order situation in the society and less crime means more investment and flourishing economy. The IGP said that protection to the business community is one of the top police priorities and the successful action by Bahawalpur police against the criminals was its proof.

The Bahawalpur police had smashed an inter-provincial gang of robbers by arresting its seven members, who had snatched away a truck loaded with carpets worth Rs 40 million. A local carpet-manufacturing factory had dispatched the truck to Karachi to export the carpets to Italy and Germany when the gangsters snatched away the truck from Bahawalpur.

DPO Bahawalpur constituted a police team, which arrested the bandits and recovered the precious carpets. The criminals are being interrogated and initial investigations indicated that they were the members of an inter-provincial gang.

Talking about fake police encounters on this occasion, the IGP said that no fake police encounter took place in the province. When the police chase the bandits aggressively, they offer resistance and open fire on the police. The police have to retaliate in self-defense. The IGP said that the police encounters, which took place in Jhang and Nankana district this week, are also genuine in which three policemen were martyred.

Responding to a media question about attack on Swedish national in Lahore, the IGP said that the incident is not linked to terrorism and the media would be informed after the police would complete investigations.

Meanwhile, the IGP awarded commendatory certificates and Rs 200,000 to DPO Bahawalpur Sohail Tajak, DSP Sadar Circle Syed Ali Raza was given Rs 150,000. Similarly, Rs 120,000 were given to Inspector Ghulam Mohyuddin, Rs 80,000 to Sub Inspector Muhammad Rafique while constables Mazahar ul Hassan, Mashud Ullah, Waris Ali, Noor Muhammad and Muhammad Arif were given Rs 30,000 each.