RAWALPINDI: Police have been directed to arrest proclaimed offenders (POs) involved in high-profile terrorism cases and those who have been on the most wanted list for several years.

Expressing concerns over the performance of officers investigating high-profile cases registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), Regional Police Officer (RPO0 Mohammad Wisal Fakhar Sultan Raja directed SSP Malik Sikandar Hayat and SP (legal) Rana Mohammad Ilyas to look into the performance of every investigating officer regarding the arrest of the proclaimed offenders. The directives were issued by the RPO during a meeting here on Tuesday.

According to police sources, there were over 80 proclaimed offenders in the Rawalpindi region. Of the total, some POs were involved in high-profile murders, kidnapping for ransom and terrorism cases.

When contacted, SSP Sikandar Hayat said the police had been looking for some of the POs for more than 10 years.

He said though a majority of the high-profile blind cases registered under the ATA had been shifted to the Counter-Terrorism Department, the police were still registering fresh cases under the ATA and investigating them.

When asked whether any proclaimed offenders had left the country and efforts were initiated by the police to bring them back, he said: “No such individual came to light during the meeting but as the police have launched a crackdown on the proclaimed offenders and are preparing their history sheets, the situation would be clear.”

The SSP said the number of proclaimed offenders wanted in terrorism cases was 83 but the number of those on the police wanted list in other cases would be much higher.

The RPO also directed the meeting to prepare history sheets of the proclaimed offenders and submit a report.

Earlier, the RPO had expressed concerns over the crime wave in Rawalpindi city as hardly a day passed without a house robbery, mobile phone snatching and shop robbery.

Taking notice of the rise in street crime, the RPO directed City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi to chalk out a fresh crime combating strategy. He warned that the concerned DSP and SHO would be held responsible for crimes (robbery, cell phone snatching and vehicle lifting) in his respective jurisdiction.

He also directed the SSP operation, the SP Rawal, Potohar and Saddar divisions to initiate snap checking and increase police patrol to check the criminals.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2017