FAISALABAD, Oct 17: DPO Muhammad Amin Wains claimed to have arrested 54 hardened criminals and smashed 13 gangs of outlaws during a month-long campaign launched in rural areas.

The DPO told newsmen that the task to smash the gangsters had been assigned to SP (Sadar) Rana Tauqeer Hayat, who constituted special raiding teams and combed the entire areas of Chak Jhumra, Thikriwala, Sadar, Dijkot and other villages.

He said the police teams arrested 54 dacoits wanted to police in over 106 cases of murder, attempted murder, dacoity, highway robbery and theft.

He said the police smashed the Shahbaz gang, the Shakeel gang, the Asif gang, the Sajjad gang, the Amjad gang, the Zahid gang, the Shahzad Chattha gang, the Bashir gang, the Zaheer gang, the Mazhar gang, the Yaseen gang and the Fateh Sher gang.

The DPO further said the police recovered the looted articles, cash and other valuables worth millions of rupees from the arrested gangsters. The outlaws were being interrogated on scientific lines for the arrest of their accomplices and to recover more valuables.

Mr Wains pointed out that a comprehensive network had been introduced in both rural and urban areas to keep the law and order situation under control.