KARACHI, April 29: The Inspector-General of the Sindh Police, Syed Kamal Shah, has said police killed 173 bandits, arrested 2,460 bandits, 1,724 proclaimed offenders and 25,186 absconders, and recovered 218 persons kidnapped for ransom during October 13, 1999 to March 31, 2002.

During this period, 864 encounters took place in different districts of the province, including Karachi, in which 101 police officials had been killed and 222 injured, he said.

“Killings and arrests of bandits in such a large number show remarkable improvement in the police’s performance which is the result of drastic changes in the strategies adopted for combating crime,” he said while talking to PPI on Monday.

Besides launching vigorous drives against criminals, we initiated accountability process in the force to purge the black sheep, inefficient and corrupt officials from it, he said, adding in the past 15 months as many as 38,712 police personnel had been punished on different charges. The punishment included dismissal of 1,554 officials, compulsory retirement of 186, stoppage of increment of 4,647 and such other actions, he said.

Asked about the increasing cases of vehicle theft and hijacking in Karachi, the IG said according to statistics during the year 2001-2002, about 4,534 four-wheelers had either been stolen or hijacked of which 2,005 had been recovered. The number of two-wheelers hijacked or stolen had been 6,099 and the number of recovered vehicles had been 1,393 showing a recovery ratio of 32 per cent, he said, adding to combat this crime the Anti-car Lifting cell had been reorganized with deploying dedicated officers, introduction of car-tracking system, setting up of checkposts at 39 exit and entry points of Karachi besides establishment of ACLC units in all districts of the province.—PPI