LAHORE: The Lahore police have arrested 340 suspects who allegedly attacked the Corps Commander House (Jinnah House) in Lahore Cantt, looted valuables, misbehaved with the senior officer’s family members and set the house on fire, according to sources.

They say the prime suspect who had stolen and worn the uniform of the Corps Commander during vandalism has also been allegedly arrested. The senior police officers, however, are reluctant to confirm the arrest of the suspects mentioned above. The sources say the suspects were identified through video recordings, CCTV cameras and other sources.

On the other hand, the Special Branch of the Punjab Police has identified 62 suspects involved in attacks on sensitive installations, police vans and private buildings and sent the information to the Punjab government for action in the cases lodged against the rioters under terrorism and other charges.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Police spokesperson claimed to have arrested 292 more suspects involved in the attacks, vandalism, violence and arson at buildings of public and private institutions across the province. He said the total number of the arrests of the PTI workers in Punjab reached 3,186 since May 9 when the party workers took to the streets and turned violent in the aftermath of the arrest of their leader Imran Khan.

62 rioters identified by Special Branch; 292 more put behind bars across Punjab

The Special Branch report reveals that it has collected information, compiled complete profiling of about 62 suspects involved in major attacks on sensitive installations and public/private buildings, police vans and private cars.

The Punjab government had assigned the task to the branch to field the officers of its intelligence wing after the violent attacks allegedly carried out by the PTI leaders and workers. The branch was especially given a target to help the government identify those suspects of the political party who were directly involved in vandalising and setting on fire the Corps Commander House and other sensitive installations in Lahore and the rest of the province. Besides, the suspects who carried out attacks on the police, set the official vehicles on fire and damaged private buildings were also to be identified.

The branch has shared the report comprising the intelligence information with the Punjab government for action against them. It analysed 742 videos of the incidents from all over the Punjab, including 458 from Lahore, and 402 images, including 384 from the provincial capital. It took help from the private CCTVs, social media, the cameras of the Punjab Safe City Authority, the media and other sources. It also took help from National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and other government departments concerned in this respect.

After image identification, the Special Branch prepared a report comprising pictures, names, addresses (current and permanent), CNIC numbers and other necessary particulars of the suspects.

According to the report, out of the total 62 suspects, 29 were identified from Lahore, 20 from Faisalabad, nine from Rawalpindi and four from Sialkot.

SIALKOT: The police allegedly stormed PTI senior leader Usman Dar’s house and the party secretariat called Jinnah House where they damaged historical pictures of Quaid-i-Azam and Fatima Jinnah.

In a statement on Sunday, Dar said he was shocked by police action of smashing hundreds of unique pictures of Quaid-i-Azam.

The PTI leader released a video on the aftermath of the attack, wherein, police officials could be seen smashing everything. He said the police destroyed hundreds of pictures of Quaid-i-Azam during the vandalism.

The PTI leader demanded action against the police officers involved in the attack.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2023