Over 7,700 held in city under NAP this year

Police arrested 7,765 suspected criminals in the provincial capital under the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism during the first quarter of the ongoing year.

According to a spokesperson, the Lahore police arrested 2,080 people on charges of possessing illegal weapons and registered cases against them. The weapons seized from them included 14 Kalashnikovs, 141 rifles, 98 guns, 1,831 pistols and revolvers and more than 11,000 bullets along with cartridges.

Another, 1,072 people were arrested over violation of the Security of Vulnerable Establishments Ordinance, 1,111 Sound System Regulation Ordinance, 3,480 Information of Temporary Residents Ordinance, seven Prohibition of Expressing Matters on Walls Ordinance and 15 in hate material cases.

The spokesman quoted Capital City Police Officer CPO Lahore Bilal Siddiqui Kamyana as stating that 616 drug peddlers had also been arrested in the city.

He said Lahore police had arrested over 2,100 people under the National Action Plan during the past month.

Search and sweep operations, general holdups and police pickets at major roads, markets, financial institutions, public places and crime hotspots were also organised regularly, the spokesman added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2023.