LAHORE, Sept 4: Punjab police on Tuesday decided to reorganise lists of Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act and show zero tolerance toward the elements promoting sectarianism.

Field officers were asked to arrest such elements after registration of cases against them. Authorities announced a new and comprehensive plan to ensure security for foreigners, government installations, minorities and the general public.

Punjab Police Inspector General Habib-ur-Rehman stated this at a meeting on law and order in the province at the Central Police Office here. Additional IGs, RPOs and DPOs from all over the province and Lahore police command were also present.

The meeting decided that police would ensure foolproof security for foreigners and minorities in the province and a strategy must be implemented in this regard.

It was decided that promotion cases would be decided on merit and in the light of court directions. The IG was informed that at least 16 DSPs (legal) had been promoted to the rank of SP and seven DSPs and other officers were regularised on merit in recent past.

The meeting reviewed police encounters, arrests of top-10 and top-20 proclaimed offenders and overall crime situation in the province. So far, 44 police encounters have been reported in Rahim Yar Khan, 26 in Faisalabad and 16 in Vehari in which most wanted criminals were killed and arrested.

The IG gave cash award of Rs100,000 to Rahim Yar Khan DPO Sohail Zafar Chatha, and Rs50,000 each to Faisalabad CPO Bilal Siddique Kamyana and Vehari DPO Ali Nasir Rizvi. Similarly, the IG awarded cash prizes of Rs50,000 and Rs25,000 to Lahore CCPO Aslam Tareen, DIG (Operations) Rai Tahir and DIG (Investigations) Chaudhry Shafique who traced the 34-member Kohat gang involved in bank robberies.

The IG directed the Sheikhupura RPO to send him proposals on relocation of Sheikhupura Police Range from Lahore to Sheikhupura. On this occasion, the IG said that names of Faisalabad RPO Aftab Ahmed Cheema, Vehari DPO Ali Nasir Rizvi and Sahiwal DPO Rana Ayyaz Saleem had been withdrawn from the Mid Career Management Course due to their outstanding performance.

The IG directed the police officers to respond to media queries and ensure their availability to the media in case of any incident.

The meeting decided to ensure physical fitness of the policemen across the province and field officers were directed to replace overweight officials on operational duties with smart and energetic policemen.