LAHORE: The violation of guidelines and non-provision of required protective gadgets to avoid Covid-19 during security and law and order duties took its toll on operations force of the Lahore police as two more cops succumbed to the virus while six station house officers (SHOs) tested positive on Monday.

Over 35,000 policemen of this particular wing of Lahore are the most vulnerable compared to others regarding nature of their field job but the senior command seems largely indifferent to the issue.

It is evident from the fact that neither the Punjab government nor the department provided protective gears to the Lahore police to protect its force from the deadly virus.

“We were provided with less than five per cent of the total required personal protective equipment (PPEs) or other gadgets,” said Rai Babar Saeed, who was transferred some days back as DIG operations Lahore.

Two ASIs die of virus; six SHOs test positive; total patients reach 144; force gets 5pc of required equipment

He said Inspector General of Police Shoaib Dastgir had provided funds to Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Zulfiqar Hameed to ensure procurement of PPEs for the force.

The equipment was yet to be purchased when he was transferred as head of the Lahore police’s operations wing, he said adding that the Lahore police during his tenure had purchased some PPEs from its own funds.

“Since the PPEs were consumable on a daily basis, they were insufficient to meet the needs of the provincial capital police”, the former DIG operations said.

Meanwhile, Lahore police department confirmed eight police officials including two inspectors, two sub-inspectors, two assistant sub-inspectors and as many constables died of Covid-19 since the pandemic hit the city.

Of them, ASIs Abdul Majeed posted in dolphin squad and Ahsanul Haq working in DIG operations office breathed their last on Monday, a spokesperson for the Lahore police said.

He said one of the eight was from dolphin squad, other from investigation wing and six were from operations wing.

Similarly, [six] SHOs of Manga Mandi, Sarwar Road, Manawan, Lorry Adda, Ghazi Road and Baghbanpura also got infected with the virus the same day.

The spokesperson said the total number of the confirmed patients in Lahore police reached 144 on Monday.

On the other hand, the senior command of the operations wing Lahore, including newly appointed DIG and SSP, were also quarantined at their respective homes.

A number of complaints surface [everyday] that the senior police officers are ignoring the requests or applications of the policemen for ‘sick leaves’ that is said to be one of the reasons of transmission of the virus to their other colleagues, an official told Dawn.

Secondly, the senior command was not taking interest to ensure implementation on the field formation and the social distancing in the force as prescribed by the Punjab government.

Requesting anonymity, the official said most of them were not wearing masks, particularly, those deployed outside the mosques and imambargahs.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2020