LAHORE: Inspector General of Punjab Police Inam Ghani on Friday gave orders for immediate removal of all unapproved checkposts in the province, asking the district police officers (DPOs) to seek a written approval from the senior command before setting up any necessary checkpost.

He warned the officers of action if they failed to supervise police personnel at checkpoints or showed negligence in inquiries.

The IGP was presiding over a review meeting of egional police officers (RPOs) and DPOs through a video link at the Central Police Office (CPO).

Addressing the meeting, he said the police officials involved in abusing authority and taking the law into their hands should be treated the same way as an ordinary citizen.

He directed the senior officers to increase surprise visits to the checkposts to ensure positive attitude of the officials with the citizens.

The IGP said the officers who failed to monitor misuse of authority of personnel should be prepared for departmental action and those responsible for deaths, torture and escape of the accused in custody would not be tolerated.

Mr Ghani said the officers who showed negligence in the inquiries sent to the districts did not deserve any concession and the DPOs should send all their inquiries to the Internal Accountability Branch (IAB).

He sought special focus on the cases of child abduction, violence and abuse and investigation into them by experienced officers.

The IGP said the AIG Operations would give a monthly report on the performance of all the RPOs, CPOs, DPOs and SDPOs.

Additional IG Operations Sahibzada Shehzad Sultan, Additional IG Investigation Fayyaz Ahmed Dev, DIG Establishment II- Maqsood Al Hassan, DIG IT Waqas Nazir, DIG Special Branch Munir Masood, DIG Operations Sohail Akhtar Sukhera and other officers were also present.

The IGP appreciated the performance of DG Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Chiniot, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Toba Tek Singh and directed the DPOs of Muzaffargarh and Bhakkar to improve their performance.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2021