I will stand with the honest and committed officers : IG Punjab

Lahore: I will stand with the honest and committed officers and officials while there is no place in the police department for the corrupt policemen who are giving bad name to the uniform.

The entire police force will have to work jointly to clean the stigma of Model Town incident. The field officers should leave no stone unturned to ensure justice rather than developing relations with the influential persons. We must get prepared to confront the upcoming challenges.

This was stated by Inspector General of Police Punjab Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera while addressing the Regional Police Officers (RPOs) conference at the Central Police Office today. Additional-IG (PHP) Sohail Khan, Additional-IG (CTD) Amin Wains, DIG (Headquarters) Punjab Muhammad Tahir, CCPO Lahore Zulfiqar Hameed and all the RPOs, CPOs, and DPOs were present on this occasion.

The Punjab IGP said that he would never compromise on the dignity of the police force, no matter he stays in the office for one year or a single day. He said that the promotions would be carried out according to the performance of the officers in future and no pressure would be accepted in this regard.

It was decided in the meeting that the IGP would himself monitor the incidents of dacoity, dacoity-cum-murder, and kidnappings for ransom. The meeting also decided that special measures would be taken around all the airports located in the Punjab province to ensure foolproof security during the take off and landing of the airlines. The police would continue search operations in the residential areas around the airports and data of the residents would also be collected and maintained.

It was also decided that the proper registration of IDPs would be ensured in the Punjab province to keep a check on the activities of the miscreants in the backdrop of military operation in North Waziristan.

It was also decided that Surprise Pickets would be setup in the cities while permanent police pickets would be removed to ease the movement of the citizens. However, the police pickets set up at the entry and exit points of the city would remain functional to check the movement of suspected persons.

The meeting also decided that the Elite Police personnel would be removed from security duties and similarly, the policemen deployed on the security duties of the serving and retired police officers would also be removed. The DNA test in the rape cases has also been declared compulsory.

The Anti-riot forces would be reactivated to avoid untoward happenings like the Model Town incident in future while the department would ensure short-courses besides issuing new SOP for the anti-riot police. On the orders of the IGP, the Morning Drill at the Police Lines on every Monday has also made compulsory. The officers are directed to ensure cleanliness at the Police Headquarters and no negligence would be tolerated in this regard.

The police are also directed to ensure foolproof security for at the mosques during the holy month of Ramazan and the checking would be ensured with the help of metal detectors and walkthrough gates during Taraveeh.

The IGP told the meeting that at least 500 new vehicles would be provided to the police force by the end of this year as 200 new police vehicles are already approved to replace the out of order vehicles. These 200 vehicles would be given the police within two to three months. At least one APC would be given to the each district police during the next fiscal year.

It was further decided in the conference that the CTD would interrogate the terror suspects in future while best legal experts would be hired for the judicial inquiries. The meeting also finalized a strategy to end the culture of custodial killings and to stop the escape of accused persons from the court premises.

The conference also reviewed in detail the cases related to murder, sectarian killings, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, rape, robbery, dacoity-cum-rape, robbery-cum-murder, and arrest of proclaimed offenders and police encounters. On this occasion, every RPO briefed the IGP about the current crimes situation in his region.