KARACHI: Inspector General of Police A.D. Khowaja on Thursday expressed displeasure over the growing number of proclaimed offenders/absconders in Sindh.

Presiding over a high-level meeting at the Central Police Office and addressing DIGs of other divisions/police ranges through video conference, the IGP took the police officers to task when he was informed that there were over 100,000 proclaimed offenders/absconders in the province, including over 46,000 in the Larkana range alone, informed sources told Dawn. Mr Khowaja termed the situation alarming and expressed displeasure over such performance of the police officers.

Reviewing the law and order situation in the province, the IGP informed the participants that Karachi, Sukkur and Larkana might face security threat and directed the officers to take extraordinary measures in this regard. He also regretted that the newly-recruited policemen had not been paid salary.

About the agonising traffic jams in Karachi, the provincial police chief observed that there was chaos on city roads and directed the DIG Traffic to double the number of traffic personnel on roads where construction or repair work was being carried out to ensure smooth flow of traffic. He asked the SSPs and other senior officers of traffic police to ensure their presence on roads from 2pm to 8pm to solve traffic problems.

Meeting told 46,000 of 100,000 such offenders were ‘roaming’ in Larkana

According to the sources, the participants of the meeting complained that the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) was not providing them access to its ‘thumb impression data’ containing information about accused/suspects and their family members.

The sources said the police authorities were considering moving the Sindh High Court to get access to such data.

According to an official press statement, IG Khowaja directed the police officers to launch an operation to arrest the proclaimed offenders. He said efforts should also be made to seize bank accounts and block mobile phone numbers of the proclaimed offenders so that their possible avenues of financial help could be closed off.

The IGP reviewed performance/progress reports of all DIGs and dismissed them as ‘unsatisfactory’. He directed the DIG Larkana to launch an effective crackdown on the proclaimed offenders and their facilitators.

He also asked DIGs of the CIA and CTD to provide all possible help to the police for the arrest of proclaimed offenders. The IGP hinted that each police range might get a locator in the forthcoming financial year. He asked the AIG Sindh to ensure payment of salary to all newly-recruited policemen before Eidul Fitr.

IG Khowaja asked the officers to ensure establishment of police reporting centres by June 15 and warned that in case of lapse of funds, an explanation would be sought from the officers concerned.

The meeting was attended by AIG Karachi, AIGs CTD and Special Branch and DIGs of different police sections. DIGs of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad, Larkana and Sukkur participated through video conference.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2017