GUJRAT: The Gujranwala region police have started providing bedding sets to the detainees in lock-ups across six districts of the region in the ongoing harsh winter season.

According to a police official, the initiative is taken on the orders of Regional Police Officer (RPO) Tariq Abbas Qureshi, who thinks that it is a basic human right of every detainee that he/she should have a bedding set comprising a mattress, a bed sheet, a quilt and a pillow in the lock-up.

These items would be provided to the detainees with the help of private donors, he added.

He said Gujranwala would be the first police region in Punjab to take such an initiative. He said as per the plan, each police station would be provided five bedding sets for the detainees to keep them warm in the harsh winter.

There are total 119 police stations in the six districts of the region -- Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad and Narowal. However, so far the facility has been provided to only a few police circles of Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sialkot districts.

On Wednesday, a brief ceremony was held at the People’s Colony police circle of Gujranwala city where RPO Qureshi and City Police Officer (CPO) Gohar Mushtaq Bhutta handed over the bedding sets to the detainees.

On the occasion, the RPO said that even a suspect had the basic human rights that should be respected and the bedding facility was being provided by the regional police purely on human grounds.

He also lauded the philanthropists and some non-government organisations (NGOs) for assisting the police in provision of such a facility to the detainees.

It is learnt that two circles of Gujrat district police have also been handed over the bedding sets which would be distributed among detainees by the district police officer (DPO).

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2020