LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to take effective measures to improve the security and management of graveyards in the wake of incidents of desecration of graves and dead bodies in Okara and Gujrat.

This was decided in a meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal at the Civil Secretariat on Saturday.

The chief secretary ordered that immediate steps be taken to prevent inhumane acts like desecration of dead bodies.

He asked the deputy commissioners to extend cooperation to the local government department to improve the management of graveyards in respective districts.

He said the Shehr-e-Khamoshan Authority would be made fully functional.

The chief secretary directed the officers concerned to arrest the culprits involved in such incidents and prosecute them as per law. He said that a database of fingerprints of criminals should be prepared with the help of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) and police.

Punjab Inspector General of Police Rao Sardar Ali Khan said the graveyards were becoming hotbeds of crime due to inattention of the authorities concerned. He asked the regional police officers (RPOs) to order the field police officers to also visit graveyards during patrols.

The meeting decided to form management committees and deploy watchmen for the security of graveyards.

The meeting participants also proposed to enhance the punishment for the desecration of a corpse.

The additional chief secretary (home), IGP, secretaries of local government, prosecution departments, director general of PFSA and others officers concerned attended the meeting while all the divisional commissioners and RPOs participated through video link.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2022