LAHORE: Punjab Inspector General of Police Faisal Shahkar on Thursday declared that incidents of torture and escape of accused from police custody are not acceptable under any circumstances, saying stern departmental and legal action should be taken against supervisory officers and officials involved in such incidents.
The IG Police expressed strong displeasure over the death of a citizen in Sargodha police custody and directed the RPO Sargodha to ensure that the officials involved in the unfortunate incident were given due punishment.
IGP Faisal Shahkar issued the instructions to all RPOs, DPOs of the province while presiding over RPOs Conference at Central Police Office here on Thursday. All RPOs, CPOs and DPOs of the province participated through video link.
Mr Shahkar declared that if any incident of custodial death reported in future, the district police officer of the respective district will be held responsible. He expressed concern over the rise in crime rate the provincial capital and directed for launching a special campaign to eradicate street crime and organized crime from all major cities including Lahore. He said that operations should be conducted on a daily basis against organized groups involved in robbery, dacoity, kidnapping, murder and other heinous crimes. The IGP directed to submit progress report to Central Police Office regularly.
The IGP directed that a vigorous crackdown should be launched on big gangs involved in drug trade and supply chain, especially the anti-social elements who lure the young students to fashionable and dangerous drugs. He directed that priority operations should be conducted against criminals of drug supply chain in educational institutions and hostels of major districts.
During the conference, the CCPO Lahore, RPOs and DPOs gave detail briefing about police operations. The IG Police appreciated performance of the officers concerned for peaceful conduct of by-elections in six districts.
Additional IG Special Branch Punjab, Operations, Investigation, Welfare, Training, PHP, CTD, DIGs and other officers were also present in the conference.
Meanwhile, Punjab IG Police Faisal Shahkar took notice of the murder of a local leader of a political party in Jhelum. The IGP sought a report from RPO Rawalpindi about the incident and directed the Jhelum DPO to form special teams to arrest the accused.
