Punjab police prepared, confident about ‘secure, fair’ elections: Dr Anwar

• Says 130,000 personnel to be deployed for security of almost 50,000 polling stations
• Says polling process to be monitored through CCTV cameras from control rooms at all levels

LAHORE: Punjab Police is fully confident and prepared for the peaceful conduct of elections, and safe delivery of ballot papers and other polling materials. More than 130,000 officers and officials from all units, including Special Branch and CTD will be deployed to ensure that polling for the general elections and the entire process will be held transparently and securely throughout the province, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar said.

IG Police Dr Usman Anwar presided over a video link meeting to finalize security arrangements for the elections at the Central Police Office.

RPOs, and DPOs of Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, and Rawalpindi regions participated through a video link. RPOs and DPOs gave a briefing about security, logistics, communication and transportation arrangements for Election 2024.

The IG Police, citing the security audit, said that 49 thousand 956 polling stations would be established across the province. Out of the total, 5,577 polling stations have been marked as highly sensitive, 14,056 as sensitive and 30,323 fall in normal category, he said, adding that more than 130,000 officers and officials of all units including Special Branch, CTD would be deployed to provide effective security to the polling stations.

Dr Anwar said that CCTV cameras would be installed at all polling stations across the province for constant monitoring polling process from control rooms established at the provincial, regional, divisional and district levels. He informed that 23,000 new cameras had been installed at the sensitive polling stations of the province, which had been linked to Safe City projects in 21 cities of the province.

“Safe City Headquarters staff will monitor all the activities happening in the polling stations besides the Safe Cities Authority will provide the respective DPOs with its developed modern monitoring system”, Dr Anwar said, adding Punjab police would be in close coordination with all security agencies, armed forces, district administration all relevant institutions for purpose.

“Dolphin Squad, Elite, QRF Force and local police led by SHOs will be continuously present in the field to deal with any effort to sabotage the electoral process”, the IGP said.

Dr Anwar issued strict instructions to the officers concerned after reviewing the entire situation. Additional IG Operations Shahzada Sultan, RPO Gujranwala Tayyab Hafeez Cheema, DIG Operations Waqas Nazir, DIG Security Kamran Adil, DIG Establishment Zeeshan Asghar, CPO Gujranwala Muhammad Ayaz Saleem, AIG Operations Dr Asad Ejaz Malhi, Sheikhupura DPO Zahid Nawaz Marwat along with senior officers attended the meeting.

Six proclaimed offenders arrested from UAE

Meanwhile, the Punjab Police claimed to have six want proclaimed offenders wanted in various cases of murders from Dubai and extradited them back to the country.

According to the spokesman for Punjab Police, a number of dangerous proclaimed offenders arrested from abroad this year has reached 12.

According to details, the team of Special Operation Cell under the leadership of Inspector Khalid Nawaz Waryah arrested six POs from Dubai and brought them to Pakistan after completing all legal processes. The arrested POs, include: Hamad Shahbaz, Abu Bakar, Imtiaz Ahmad, Muhammad Rizwan, Bilal Mustafa and Ali Raza. Hamad Shahbaz fled abroad after killing a citizen in Gujranwala in 2022; Muhammad Rizwan killed a citizen in Faisalabad in 2023 and fled abroad. Similarly, PO Abu Bakr and Imtiaz Ahmed fled abroad after killing a citizen in Gujranwala last year while Bilal Mustafa was wanted by the Sialkot police since 2015 in a murder case whereas Ali Raza absconded abroad for 02 years after killing a citizen in Jhelum in 2022.

The Punjab Police Special Operation Cell team has issued red notices to all proclaimed offenders through Interpol. All the proclaimed offenders were arrested in close coordination with the UAE Police and after completing the legal procedures, the team reached Pakistan and the police teams of the relevant districts took the proclaimed offenders into their custody at the airport.