JHANG, July 10: Five proclaimed offenders, four court absconders and 25 cattle-lifters were arrested on Monday in a raid, believed to be the heaviest ever in the province, conducted by the Punjab police.
Contingents comprising personnel from four districts of three ranges, having a total strength of about 1,000 officers and jawans, equipped with automatic weapons, also recovered 302 cattle-heads, three rifles and two guns.
According to a police department press release, a high-level meeting, headed by the Punjab IGP and attended by DIGs of Gujranwala, Sargodha and Faisalabad ranges, decided to launch a massive joint operation by police contingents of Faisalabad, Hafizabad, Jhang and Sargodha districts in Jehangir Gilhotran village. Situated on the right bank of river Chenab in Chiniot tehsil, Jhang district, the village provides a safe haven to most of notorious cattle-lifters, POs and hardened criminals of four adjoining districts.
Requesting anonymity, a police official said the number of POs, taking refuge in this bushy riverine and highly inaccessibly area, was several hundreds.
The operation, led by Jhang DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal, was assisted by Hafizabad DPO Pervez Qandhari, Jhang Additional SP Tufail Hassan Mirza, Sargodha Additional SP Riaz Maken, the Chenab Nagar DSP, the Jhang DSP (investigation), the Jhang Sadar DSP, the Chak Jhumra DSP, the Faisalabad DSP, Hafizabad Sadar DSP, the Hafizabad DSP (headquarters), the Sargodha Sadar DSP, the Kot Momin DSP, 27 SHOs of various police stations of four districts, 54 sub-inspectors, 540 jawans and 18 teams of elite force.
Interestingly, the raiding force did not acquire the services of Chiniot ASP Mehboob Rashid, the only PSP officer posted at Jhang district, and whose area of jurisdiction lies only a couple of miles away from Jehangir Gilhotran.
Divided into nine teams, the entire force sealed off the targeted village in the early hours of Sunday and charged towards the village from all directions at about 4am.
The operation continued for the whole day that resulted in the arrest of several criminals without meeting any resistance, as not a single bullet had to be fired.
Some of the recovered cattle-heads, after proper identification, were handed over to villagers of adjoining villages. While a large number of recovered cattle was still unclaimed at the time of filing of this report.
The Punjab IGP has announced rewards and medals for officers and jawans participated in the massive raid.