LAHORE: As the newly established Crime Control Department (CCD) Punjab took over operations across the province, the Lahore police high-ups came up with another proposal of raising a new dedicated force to deal with the heinous crime on the pattern of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) in the provincial metropolis.

Lahore Investigation DIG Zeeshan Raza is reportedly the key player behind the proposal which may irk the CCD’s senior officers as the department has been authorised to discharge the same functions, increasing the chances of duplications/overlapping or the confusion.

An official, privy to the development, said the idea of raising the new dedicated unit came under discussion in a meeting held a week back where the DIG investigation shared the administrative structure of the new proposed force. He said that the new agency was proposed when the Organised Crime Unit (OCU) Lahore, formerly known as CIA, was abolished and the CCD took over the entire OCU team, building infrastructure and other resources.

There are reports that the OCU was investigating nearly 30,000 cases lodged under serious and heinous crime with various police stations out of the total 57,000 such cases registered with Lahore’s all the 85 police stations.

Proposal follows operations’ recent takeover by newly established CCD after CIA/OCU abolition

Last year, the official said, the OCU had investigated nearly 35,000 heinous crime cases transferred to it from the investigation wing of Lahore police. Of them, 20,000 cases were investigated by the Anti-Vehicle Lifting Squad while 12,000 by the other officials of the OCU and challan were submitted to courts.

The official said the major chunk of the cases was transferred from the investigation police to the OCU under a laid down standard operating procedure (SOP) every year. The capital city police officer (CCPO) was discharging the supervisory role while the DIG investigation had nothing to do with the OCU’s matters.

Meanwhile, the official said, the CCD launched its operation across Punjab, mainly in Lahore, making appointments of the SPs and other officers against key positions.

On Tuesday, it also made appointments of the station house officers (SHOs) of the CCD in Lahore.

As the DIG investigation learnt that the heinous crime cases might again go to the CCD, he tossed the new proposal of raising another dedicated unit.

The official said the Lahore police high-ups strongly believed that the investigation wing lacked the potential or capacity to deal with all the 57,000 heinous crime cases in addition to the 3m other annually registered cases of the provincial capital. They were of the views that the CCD in Lahore would deal only 5,000 to 6,000 heinous crime cases, including kidnap for ransom, extortion, robbery, robbery-cum-murder, robbery-cum-rape cases etc. For the investigation of the other cases, the Lahore police officers felt a need of raising a new dedicated force on the pattern of the CIA or OCU Lahore.

As per the plan, the newly proposed police force will have its unit in each division of the Lahore police, the official said, adding that the police authorities may transfer the heinous crime cases of choice to the proposed units.

On the other hand, there were some apprehensions that the emergence of the new (third) proposed force may increase the chances of overlapping of the police functions as the same were being done already by the investigation and the CCD.

However, the official clarified the situation, saying the authorities concerned might come up with some standard guidelines/SOPs to segregate the heinous crime cases to end duplications or overlapping.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2025