LAHORE: The Punjab police carried out 402 combing operations during the last three days all over the province and arrested 443 suspects, besides 76 proclaimed offenders.

Most of the arrests were made in Faisalabad, Kasur, Lahore, Chinot, Bhakar, Nankana Sahib and Hafizabad.

A senior police officer privy to the information told Dawn the combing operations had been launched in all the districts of the province on the basis of the information from the police sources about the presence of suspects and criminals.

He said the operations were enhanced in the wake of Eidul Azha.

“The Punjab police checked 13,230 people in 402 combing operations during last three days and arrested 443 suspects”, the police official said adding that the raiding teams also managed to arrest 76 proclaimed offenders wanted in many heinous crimes.

During raids, the police also recovered 139 illegal weapons from the custody of the arrested criminals, he said.

Of the total, he said, Faisalabad police arrested 98 suspects and three POs in 46 combing operations carried out in various parts of the district.

443 suspects, 76 POs arrested

Similarly, Lahore police conducted 26 combing operations and arrested 31 suspects, Nankana Sahib police arrested 17 suspects in nine operations, Kasur 75 suspects in 33 operations, Chiniot police arrested 35 suspects and a PO in five operations, Bhakar police arrested 28 suspects and four POs in 27 operations, Hafizabad police 17 suspects and six POs in 32 operations and Sialkot arrested 10 suspects in 14 combing operations.

The official further shared that the Mianwahli police conducted six combing operations, Attock four, Mianwali six, Sialkot 14, Mandi Behauddin 17, Gujranwala eight, Sahiwal, five, Multan, six, Jhang five, Pakpatan seven, and Rajanpur police carried out three combing operations, making arrest of many suspects and criminals.

According to our correspondents, the police and law-enforcement agencies arrested a number of suspects and recovered sizable arms as well as narcotics from their possession during a combing operation conducted across Punjab in the last 24 hours.

Faisalabad: Police conducted a search operation in Gulberg and Jaranwala circles on Sunday night and took into custody over 50 suspects and seized some weapons as well from them.

SSP (Investigation) Dr Farrukh Raza led the operation in Jaranwala and DSP Abid Zafar in Gulberg circle.

Police raided various houses and outhouses in both areas, interrogated about 250 suspects and arrested 51 of them when they failed to satisfy police. Police also recovered two Kalashnikovs, as many pistols, other weapons and narcotics from them.

OKARA: A number of suspects and absconders were arrested in the combing operation launched jointly by police and sensitive agencies in the last 24 hours in the district.

District Police Officer Muhammad Faisal Rana told reporters that a large number of weapons, 9kg hashish and 256 liter of liquor were also recovered from them.

The DPO said the arrested suspects and criminals had been shifted to some unknown place for interrogation.

GUJRANWALA: Dozens of suspects and proclaimed offenders as well as some drug-traffickers were arrested by joint raiding teams of police and law enforcement agencies during a search operation in the city and nearby towns.

The suspects were arrested from Kamoki, Qila Dedar Singh, Wahando, Aiminabad, Alipur Chattha, Wazirabad, Ghakkhar, Sodara and Ahmad Nagar. A huge quantity of arms and narcotics were also seized from the arrested suspects.

The suspects were shifted to the investigation centre.

SIALKOT: Sialkot police took into custody a number of suspects in the limits of four police stations -- Head Marala, Sambrial, Sabzpeer and Pasrur.

DPO Dr Abid Khan said some of the suspects were released after a thorough interrogation.

The DPO said the police recovered four unlicensed pistols from accused Rizwan, Akhtar, Javaid and Dad Khan and two rifles of 12-bore from accused Shah Muhammad and Ghulam Muhammad.

He said the all the six accused were sent behind the bars after registration of cases against them.

SARGODHA: The district police arrested 10 suspects and seized weapons and narcotics from their possession.

The police said various teams conducted search operation in different areas of the district and also recovered three Kalashnikovs, as many rifles, and a pistol as well as 600grams hashish from the arrested suspects.

Police have registered separate cases against the accused and started investigating.

Published in Dawn September 13th, 2016