LAHORE, Feb 3: Police have failed to trace the accused involved in 49 out of 69 bomb blasts reported in the Punjab during the past four years in which 97 people had been killed in addition to the other material loss. Twenty people allegedly responsible for 13 other blasts have been apprehended.

Provincial minister for law Raja Basharat told the Punjab Assembly on Monday.

Replying to a question asked by PPP’s Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan during the question hour, the minister said efforts were being made to arrest the accused responsible for all incidents.

Speaker Afzal Sahi presided over the session.

Raja Basharat said foreign hand was involved in most of such cases because of which it was very difficult for the police to trace the accused. Still, he said, the police should be given credit for showing good performance.

As for cases which remained untraced, the minister said nobody could be held responsible for them nor could the government take action against any police official on this account.

Asked whether any of the accused had been sentenced for involvement in the blasts, he said cases were still pending with courts.

In a written answer to Rana Tajammal Husain’s question, the minister claimed that the new police law had helped improve the situation. Allegations that the people had to offer graft to the police or face humiliation were baseless. Nobody, he claimed, had made any complaint against the new system.

The House was informed that 38 DSPs had been dismissed or forcibly retired during the past two years. He gave details of allegations against them and the status of legal process in this regard.

To a question by Syed Ehsanullah Waqas, Raja Basharat said there were 812 death cells in various prisons of the Punjab and as many prisoners were supposed to be detained therein. But at present, there were 5,262 condemned prisoners in these cells. He said against the sanctioned capacity for 534 women, there were 1,021 women prisoners in Punjab jails.

The minister said the government was aware of the gravity of the problem, and it had allocated Rs420 million to construct new death cells and barracks. Another Rs1,395 million had been allocated for new jails. An amount of Rs90 million had been earmarked to providing better facilities to prisoners, Raja Basharat said.

He said to bring down overcrowding in jails, 21,542 prisoners sentenced for minor offences had been released. No woman involved in petty crime was behind bars.

In response to a question from Rana Aftab, the minister said five riot incidents had been reported from three jails of the Punjab during the past four years. Three of them had taken place in Sahiwal jail alone while the remaining two in Faisalabad and Rahimyar Khan. He also gave details of action taken against various officials for their failure to perform their duties.

Responding to another question, the minister said except for the Mochi Gate and Lohari Gate’s, all other police stations in Lahore had vehicles to perform their duties. The two were without the facility because of their location in congested areas. However, all police stations had been provided with motorcycles.

The minister confirmed that the shift system would be introduced in the Police Department once the recruitment was completed according to the sanctioned strength.

About crime incidence in Lahore, the minister said 19,122 cases of various nature had been reported during the first six months of the outgoing year. This showed as increase of 1,792 cases compared to the corresponding period in 2001.

On a call attention notice regarding the kidnapping of four sisters from Jampur some time back, the minister said all accused had been arrested in accordance with a court order. He said the police were of the view that the four sisters had left their house because of the attitude of their father and brother, and that a false allegation had been made against various people that they had kidnapped them.

The police, Raja Basharat said, rejected the findings and ordered a case against the accused which was now in progress.