IGP speaks: ‘Crime rate has dropped this year’

LAHORE: Inspector General of Punjab Police Haji Habibur Rehman said on Sunday that crime rate appeared to have declined in the province. He was briefing the media at the Central Police Office. The IGP said so far this year two incidents of kidnapping for ransom had been reported from Sheikhupura. He said the number of such incidents reported during the same period last year was 14. In Sargodha, four kidnappings were reported in 2011. “There have been two such incidents in 2012 so far,” he said. He said the number of kidnappings reported from Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan were less than the numbers reported in 2011. The IGP said the police have so far recovered 66 people kidnapped for ransom.  He said 19 robberies were reported in Lahore in 2011, compared to 12 reported this year; 41 in Sheikhupura, compared to 26 this year; 14 in Multan, compared to seven this year.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2012.