Cops told to net absconding criminals

As the end of year approaches, Inspector General of Police Punjab (IGP) Rao Sardar Ali Khan has issued orders to expedite apprehension of proclaimed offenders, ‘dangerous dacoits and professional criminals’.

IGP Rao Sardar issued the instructions while chairing a meeting at Central Police Office (CPO) on Tuesday.

However, the traditional trend of hastening police action against suspected criminals is often deemed as an attempt to improve the annual performance figures, while opening the doors for exploitation.

Due to the practice, many cases of highhandedness have also been reported in the past. A suspect arrested by police for carrying drugs had died in Green Town allegedly due to police torture in 2014. In another case in the last month of the same year, a suspected proclaimed offender had died in Iqbal Town during a raid carried out to arrest him.

Similar incidents during crackdowns in last days of several recent years have been reported.

“It is mandatory to use Hotel Eye App in all hotels, inns, residences and private rest houses of the province,” the IGP said.

He directed all RPOs and DPOs to make it mandatory for the people involved in hotel and lodging business in their districts to enter the data of every citizen staying in hotels in the mobile application. Khan said legal action would be taken against those who did not enter the data in the software.

He warned that in districts where data was not being entered in the Hotel Eye software, a reply would be sought from the officers concerned.

The provincial police chief directed the officials to integrate the hotel software with the networks of major transporters and the prison department. He directed the officers to prepare a feasibility report in this regard and present it in the next meeting.

He said that use of modern technology would help arrest and keep an eye on the movement of proclaimed offenders and dangerous criminals, therefore the supervisory officers should fully utilise the IT projects of Punjab Police.

The DIG IT briefed the IGP on the performance of software developed for providing modern policing and easy service delivery.

Rao Sardar said the ongoing campaign for arrest of proclaimed offenders and absconders should be intensified in all the districts of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2021.