LAHORE, June 17: The CIA police claim to have arrested 17 members of a gang and recovered from their possession cash and looted items, including a car, nine motorcycles and gold jewellery worth Rs11 million.

Investigation DIG Malik Ali Amir told the media on Friday that the criminals were wanted by the police in a number of cases of murder, robbery, dacoity, street crime and vehicle-snatching.

Investigation SSP Abdul Razzaq Cheema, CIA SP Umer Virk and other senior police officers were also present.

The DIG said the provincial government had fixed a Rs700,000 head money for the arrest of ringleader Kashif, Rs600,000 for Arif Odh's arrest and Rs200,000 for Abdul Khaliq's arrest.

The others arrested included Muhammad Boota, Zaheer Ahmad, Mumtaz Ahmad, Shahbaz Husain, Ali Arsalan, Noor Samad and Rana Ashraf.

The DIG said one of the arrested proclaimed offenders, Mumtaz Ali, was wanted by the police in a number of criminal cases registered against him in Kasur and Layyah districts.

He said his parents prepared his fake death certificate and submitted to the police concerned to mislead the law-enforcement agencies. On the basis of the death certificate, he said, the Kasur police had disposed of all the cases of the arrested criminal (Mumtaz Ali).

Mr Amir said the CIA police was given the task of arresting the hardened criminals and it collected particulars and conducted raids. He said during interrogation the criminals had confessed to many incidents of crime in Lahore and other cities.