May 30, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1429

FAISALABAD, May 29: A gamble is on between the station house officers (SHO) and the town police officer (TPO) of Jinnah Town over gambling dens and its 'influential proprietors', Dawn learnt on Thursday.

The TPO was tasked with eliminating the dens being run with alleged connivance of SHOs.

Sources said the deputy inspector general of police (DIG) office had received a number of complaints about gambling dens in the city areas.

People complained that motorcycle squads collected monthly amounts for SHOs and they also tipped off to gamblers about any action from high-ups.

Investigation conducted by Dawn revealed that such dens in Jinnah Town are being operated by Mehr Bhola, Kaka Dandu, Idrees, Ishfaq, Kala Cable Wala, Malik Mini, Faja, Shouki and Siddiq Kala.

The bribe rates of SHOs surged with the start of the Indian Premier League. If the shorter version of cricket made many international cricketers taking part in the tournament prosper, SHOs and even some senior police officers here in Jinnah Town have also benefited from the competition as many people have staked their amounts on different teams in these dens.

Fearless policemen even receive money from the owners of these dens publicly, sources say.

Now, newly-appointed TPO Sohail Akhtar Sukhera has been tasked with removing all gambling dens, allegedly patronising by SHOs Saleem Haider Shah, of Gulberg, Rana Atta, of Raza Abad, Bilal Mansoor, of Kotwali, Abid Zafar, of Ghulam Muhammad Abad, and Haji Ghulam Abbas, of Jhang Bazaar.

The Jinnah Town consists of 34 union councils, including posh as well as downtrodden areas. The police strength of the town is one superintendent of police (SP), four DSPs, four inspectors, 22 sub-inspectors, 43 assistant sub-inspectors, 46 head constables and 510 constables.

Pakistan People’s Party Punjab leader and senior minister Raja Riaz Ahmed is from Jinnah Town.

The TPO held a meeting with SHOs and asked them to submit information about gambling dens. Sources said SHOs, however, told their boss there was no such den in their limits.

The TPO, however, not satisfied with the response, made his own team for action against gamblers, sources said, adding that a team, headed by DSP Amir Sheikh, raided different places in the limits of Ghulam Mohammadabad police station on Wednesday night and arrested nearly two dozen gamblers with staked money. The arrests could be made only after all police station employees were kept in dark about the raid.

Sources said the TPO also arrested a few people a couple of days ago in a gambling den of Shehzad Gonga being run outside the Gulberg police station.

Sources said that a couple of days ago, Deputy Inspector General Muhammad Aslam Tareen had expressed his displeasure over rising complaints of gambling dens in the district, particularly in city areas.

All instructions of the DIG went down the drain and 'influential gamblers' went on with their business.

An officer requesting anonymity said high-ups were much perturbed over patronising of gambling dens by SHOs.

The DIG said information was being gleaned against SHOs allegedly patronising unscrupulous elements and they would be brought to book. SHOs refused to comment on the story.