LAHORE :Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Shoaib Dastgir on Monday said that crime rate had decreased by 39 per cent in the province during the lockdown in the wake of coronovirus pandemic.
According to a spokesperson for the IGP Punjab, the main reason for the decrease in crime incidents was the presence of the police on roads almost 24 hours and restrictions on free movement of people due to the lockdown. He said due to strict vigilance by the police criminals did not dare continue their criminal activities, including dacoities, robberies and thefts, etc.
As per orders of IGP Shoaib Dastagir, crackdown on hoarders and violators of lockdown continued. Since March 16, 13,498 cases against violation of Section 144 and 324 cases against hoarders have been registered.
Police teams established 1,516 pickets where 113,101 vehicles and 263,214 motorcycles have been checked. On these police pickets, 570,979 people have been checked and 351,161 have been released on warning. Security bonds have been taken from 24,364 citizens whereas 24,412 citizens have been arrested by lodging 13,498 FIRs over violation against Section 144 among them and 13,886 citizens have been released on bail whereas actions have been taken against 2,457 shopkeepers and 216 restaurants. Likewise, 324 cases have been registered against hoarding and legal action has been taken against 395 accused in this regard among them 305 have been arrested and 124 have been released on bail. During 28 days duty, police teams provided awareness to 145,846 citizens and also provided assistance 104,628 citizens. During previous day, 1,516 pickets have been established where 5,497 vehicles and 12,774 motorcycles have been checked. On these police pickets, among 24,953 checked citizens, 15,385 citizens have been released on warning. Surety bonds have been taken from 1,126 citizens. Collectively, 1,254 accused have been nominated in 640 FIRs whereas action has been taken against 92 shops and 10 restaurants. Likewise in action against hoarding during previous 24 hours, 12 cases have been registered and legal action has been taken against 20 people among them 17 have been arrested. Police teams during the duty provided corona awareness to 5,519 citizens and 3,564 citizens have been provided assistance by police.
IG Shoaib Dastagir stressed regional and district police chiefs to speed up actions against the violators of law and directed them to continue actions against those who do not follow the directions of the government and also submit the progress report of crackdown to central police office on daily basis.
Meanwhile, DIG Operations Rai Babar Saeed said on Monday that so far 1,799 cases had been registered against those involved in violations of Section 144, imposed in the city in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
According to official sources, the Lahore Police Operations Wing had set up more than 200 pickets in different areas of the city to retrain people from unnecessary movement.
More than 145,534 citizens have been checked at these pickets till date since imposition of the lockdown while more than 135,690 persons were asked to go back to their homes. Over 4,032 citizens were released after getting surety bonds from them about not coming out of their homes unnecessarily.
As many as 125,359 vehicles including 71,556 motorcycles, 24,539 cars, 19,094 rickshaws, 3.420 taxis and 6,750 heavy vehicles were stopped on pickets and the owners were issued warning over unnecessary movement in the city. The police had impounded 5102 cars and motorcycles in different police stations of the city on the violation of Section 144.
(The News)
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