It seems Lahorites have been left at the mercy of gangsters because brazen bank robberies, house dacoities and killings on resistance have become order of the day in the provincial metropolis, thanks to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s appointment of ‘spent forces’ on key posts.
Differences among police officers serving in the City, lack of proper policing and corruption-riddled Crimes Investigations Agency (CIA) are the major reasons cited for the surge in organised crimes.
The Lahore police – comprising DIG (Operations) Rai Muhammad Tahir, DIG (Investigations) Chaudhry Shafique Ahmad Gujjar and SP CIA Omar Virk – has miserably failed to control gun crimes in the City.
In 2009, Gujjar served as senior superintendent of police (operations) in Lahore, and was accused of patronising land grabbers and gangsters. Later, he was transferred over poor performance, bad reputation and protecting the land grabbers.
Interestingly, the victims had launched protest demonstrations against the officer and knocked every door to get justice. Now he is back again and has been appointed as chief of the Investigations Wing of the City Police.
The ranker-SP Muhammad Umar Virk has been re-appointed as chief of the CIA police, also known as the Anti-Organised Crime Police with prime responsibility of controlling organised crimes, particularly armed robberies, house dacoities and kidnappings for ransom.
Umar Virk, a controversial character with bad repute in the Police Department, had been transferred to Layyah district in February 2012 after the then-IGP Javed Iqbal came to know about his involvement in criminal activities.
Umar Virk has served in the CIA police Lahore for several years. During his posting, the CIA police staged scores of fake encounters and killed many alleged gangsters. He has a team of notorious and rogue police inspectors for staging fake encounter. Virk has also links with the underworld mafia and land grabbers.
Rai Muhammad Tahir was appointed as deputy inspector general (operations) in May. Earlier, he held the post of district police officer in Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Sheikhupra districts.
A couple of months ago, IGP Muhammad Habib-ur-Rehman, while addressing a joint meeting of Lahore Police at the Police Headquarters, Qila Gujjar Singh, hoped that Tahir would come up to his expectations. Unfortunately, being the chief of operations police, he has failed to control rising crimes in the City.
Police circles believe that crime fighting is not the priority of these influential officers, who spend most of their time meeting with powerful politicians to retain lucrative posts.
In major incidents of crimes that took place in Lahore last week, robbers hit the City no less than 150 times, robbed three banks in broad daylight, looted dozens of houses, shot dead a woman and injured five other people on offering resistance and fled away after collecting cash, gold ornaments and other valuables worth millions of rupees.
For instance, in a single day on Monday, dacoits robbed eight houses, shot dead a 30-year-old woman, wounded her husband on offering resistance, and fled after collecting cash, gold ornaments and other valuables worth Rs15 million in several successful strikes in different parts of the City.
On Wednesday, robbers hit the City no less than 21 times and took away cash, gold ornament and other valuables worth millions of rupees, besides three cars and four motorcycles.
On Friday, robbers struck two banks back-to-back in different parts of the City and snatched away Rs9.5 million in broad daylight. Not enough, gunmen looted families, robbed house and passers-by in more than 15 strikes on the same day.
The brazen bank robberies in broad daylight have put a question mark on the working of Lahore police because the gunmen hit the banks in leading commercial centres and easily make their escape good. Since April last year, robbers have looted no less than 19 banks in different parts of the provincial metropolis and snatched million of rupees. The police including the CIA are still unable to unearth the gangs involved in these bank dacoities.
Street crimes and armed robberies have swelled to an alarming level during the last couple of months, but the Lahore police are yet to make any breakthrough as far as major robberies are concerned. The abovementioned incidents should be an eye-opener for the chief minister, who must take notice of the worsening law and order situation and spent forces should be sent packing immediately.
No comments:
Post a Comment