LAHORE: In what appears to be a first such initiative, the Punjab Police has constituted a ‘Liaison wing’ consisting of the senior officers from police, Interpol and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to bring 910 ‘category A’ hardened criminals back to Pakistan from abroad.

A majority of them – 70pc– are hiding in Gulf countries, particularly Dubai while others are in Europe, America and Canada from where they are operating local criminals in Lahore and the rest of the province to get their targetted people killed against petty amounts besides committing other heinous crimes, including extortion and kidnap for ransom. They are contributing a lot to the heinous crimes reported in many cities, including Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, by hiring the local shooters.

According to the police record, total of 11,792 criminals wanted in the cases registered against them all over the province have been declared proclaimed offenders (POs). Of them, 910 managed to flee Pakistan. They were involved in heinous crimes, including murder and kidnap for ransom.

Sharing further disturbing figures, an official source said out of the total 910 criminals who had fled abroad, 243 were residents of Gujrat, 158 of Sialkot, 92 of Gujranwala, 78 of Mandi Bahauddin, 45 of Sargodha and 39 of Lahore. He said the Liaison Wing had been directed by IGP Dr Usman Anwar to collect details of the ‘most wanted’ criminals from all the regional police officers in order to initiate legal action against them.

Gangsters hire local shooters to kill targets; 910 POs include 243 of Gujrat, 158 of Sialkot

The source said the IGP had also contacted the officers concerned of the Interpol in Islamabad and the FIA to finalise the work on the scheme. He said a notorious criminal wanted in dozens of cases in Lahore had escaped abroad and he was operating local shooters to continue his activities.

According to the official, a majority of the total 100 shooters were committing heinous crime in Lahore on the special task given by the hardened criminal from abroad. He said the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) police had also prepared a list and data of the shooters and the people murdered by them. One of the young hired assassins was allegedly killed two days back in Lahore in an encounter with the CIA police. The criminal had recently shot three citizens dead for not paying ransom.

While presiding over the meeting, IG Police Dr Usman Anwar, directed the RPOs and DPOs to contact the complainants on their mobile phones or using human resource in order to get updates about the accused or suspects to ensure their arrest abroad.

He directed the officers to launch a crackdown to arrest all the other POs.

Dr Usman Anwar asked the Liaison Wing to initiate the legal process against the PO who was hiding in the Middle East, South Africa, Europe and America, or in the countries with which Pakistan had an agreement to bring them back through the Interpol.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2023