TAXILA: The centuries old FIR and roznamcha, or daily crime diary system, has been closed in all the police stations in the Rawalpindi district and the lodging of complaints and the registration of cases will now be done digitally, said Senior Superintendent of Police Operations Rawalpindi, Irfan Tariq on Thursday.

He said a computerised complaints management system has been introduced in police stations in order to help with delays in the lodging of FIRs and eliminating corruption from the department.

The SSP was talking to newsmen at the Wah Saddar Police station on Thursday in regards to front desks which became operational in the district on Jan 1.

He said thana culture would be eliminated with the establishment of the front desks, which will not be manned by police officials so that the public did not hesitate to visit and register complaints.

“The complaints of the people will be received immediately and without any hurdles by the officials deployed at the front desk,” he said.

SSP Tariq added that till now, people had to wait to register their complaints and that the establishment of the front desks was part of efforts to improve the police’s image.

Monitoring rooms have been established in the offices of DPOs and RPOs in order for them to keep check on the desks, he said.

He added that led by Circle DSP Sajid Gondal and Station House Officer Zaheerud Din Babar, the Wah Cantonment police have arrested three of a five member gang of car thieves and that two of the thieves are still at large.

He said the team recovered eight vehicles worth Rs6.1 million, which are believed to have been stolen from across the city. The arrested members of the gang have been identified as Shamsher Ali, Waheed Ahmed and Ahmed Khan, who have so far confessed to stealing 15 vehicles.

He said the ring leader, Shamsher, has a history of stealing vehicles and has so far stolen 66 vehicles.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2017