Despite instructions from the deputy inspector general (Operations), many of the city’s police stations are not maintaining a record of calls made to Rescue 15, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The DIG issued a circular to all city police stations on April 29 ordering them to maintain a register of Rescue 15 calls and instructing station house officers (SHO) to verify the records.
Some 10 days later, several police stations are not keeping records. Many police officials complained that it was a futile exercise since most calls made to Rescue 15 were hoax calls.
Mozang police officials said that they were not maintaining a register as the station did not even have a wireless set. A Misri Shah policeman said the station was not maintaining a register either. Officials at police stations that are keeping records said they were being kept by the wireless operators rather than the muharrar.
An inspector said that most calls he had responded to were hoaxes. He said that a few days ago, Rescue 15 received a call that seven men had entered a jewelry store and were about to rob it of millions of rupees. He said that he phoned the caller back to confirm his account, but when he went to check the shop, it turned out to have been a kerfuffle between two unarmed groups over a small amount of money.
A source in the DIG’s (Operations) office said that officials from all police stations would be summoned to the office with the records in the coming days to push for compliance of the orders.
SSP (Operations) Faisal Rana said that the hoax callers should be prosecuted.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ