LAHORE, April 1: The Punjab police chief has directed his subordinates to launch a ‘Village Defence System’ to control crimes in rural areas and improve the image of police among people.

Inspector General (IG) Dr Syed Azhar Hassan Nadeem issued the directives to all capital city police officers (CCPOs), regional police officers (RPOs) and district police officers (DPOs) on Tuesday.

Under the policy guidelines, all villages situated in the limits of a police station should be distributed into beats and each beat be headed by one in charge.

The beat in charge must maintain the record of all villages, councils, chowkidars (watchmen), mosques, madressahs and schools of his beat.

The station house officer must visit villages falling in his jurisdiction with the beat in charge and brief the people about the defence system.

Police should organise ‘Thekari Pahra’ system’ or the security of a village by its people at night, in each village and should form committees consisting of impartial people for the effective monitoring of the system.

These committees must keep information of volunteers and availability of licenced arms in the village. The thekari pahra must cover both interior and entrance points of the village.

The directives say all cattle in a village must be marked and a secret code or number of the village be affixed on each cattle so that it is recognised if stolen.

Moreover, old enmities among the residents of a village must be settled, as Punchayat or local councils can arrange reconciliation among warring factions permanently.

The orders also urge field police officers to keep a regular liaison with villages to obtain useful information about proclaimed officers and other hardened criminals.

According to the directives, field police officers must do homework on the plan by April 7 so that the ‘Village Defence System’ can be made operational from April 8.