LAHORE: The Punjab government on Saturday intensified the crackdown on illegal immigrants, directing that human rights violations would not be tolerated.

Punjab Inspector General Police Dr Usman Anwar chaired a meeting to review the deportation process of illegal immigrants. All RPOs, CPOs, and DPOs of the province participated through video link. Senior officers, including Managing Director Punjab Safe City Authority Ahsan Younas, AIG Operations Dr Asad Ijaz Malhi and AIG Admin Amara Athar were also present.

He directed all the RPOs, CPOs and DPOs to speed up the process of deportation of illegal foreigners and they should be sent back as soon as possible as per government orders.

He directed to continue the deportation process through the help of special branch, CTD, security agencies and intelligence-based information.

He said illegal foreigners should be checked according to mapping, scanning, and screening.

He directed that human rights violations will not be tolerated during the deportation process and all regional and district police officers should coordinate with the district administration and other respective agencies for the deportation process.

Later, IGP Anwar said expeditious shifting of all police stations to Special Initiative Police Stations (SIPS) and upgrade of khidmat marakaz is the first priority.

He said all RPOs and DPOs should complete the upgrading of all police stations to special initiative police stations within the given period.

He said after SIPS, the Pasban Project would start along with the upgrade of Police Lines.

He said police infrastructure is being upgraded according to modern policing requirements and the benefit of all development initiatives will reach the public in the form of easy and fast service delivery.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2023