LAHORE, Aug 27: Armed policemen are now accompanying distribution vans of various companies, especially a multinational beverage house, which have been a favourite target of robbers for over a month.

Sources in the police department say that 150 personnel have been put at the disposal of the distribution vans to guard them during their working hours. Refusing to go into details, Lahore Operations police SSP Aftab Cheema had told a press conference on Thursday that the police had taken appropriate steps to arrest such strikes. "There has been no such strike for the last two days," he claimed.

The distribution vans have been a favourite prey of the robbers in the city for over a month during which no less than 50 such strikes were reported. The robbers made off with hundreds of thousands of rupees in these strikes.

The preventive measures have been taken on the orders of Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who took strong notice of the robbery incidence at a meeting some days ago.

The sources say the measures are meant to please the beverage company because it is owned by a federal minister. Otherwise, they add, the police have earlier refused to take such a measure to benefit other companies and business houses, asking them to arrange their own security under the relevant law (Shops and Maintenance Ordinance).

The police, they said, had initially deployed their men in plainclothes with the distribution vans in a bid to identify and arrest the gangs. However, the idea did not work when two of the policemen were beaten up by robbers. The police have to deploy their men in uniform.

The gang involved in the specific strikes seems to be well organized, as the police have failed to arrest any of its members so far. The gangsters had detained an official of the beverage company for 24 hours and taken all details of its distribution vans, names of the cashier and their routes.