LAHORE – The Lahore CIA had traced 1,563 cases of heinous crimes – including 46 cases of blind murder, dacoity-cum-murder and kidnapping for ransom – and recovered Rs160 million from the accused during the past 10 months, an agency spokesperson claimed on Wednesday.
The CIA spokesperson informed that of these cases, 24 were of blind murder; seven of dacoity-cum-murder; 15 of kidnapping for ransom; 114 of dacoity; 787 of robbery; 55 of car, motorcycle and other vehicles snatching; 140 of car, motorcycle and other vehicles theft; 163 of burglary; 222 of theft; and 36 of miscellaneous nature.
The spokesperson said that the CIA Model Town Division traced 334 cases, the CIA City Division 320 cases and the CIA Saddar Division 252 cases. “The total looted money in these cases was Rs500 million, of which Rs160 million were recovered,” he added.
A DSP further said: “We have arrested 827 proclaimed offenders, including seven most wanted ones and three on whom the Punjab government had fixed head money.” Sharing details, he said that the Punjab Home Department had fixed Rs400,000 as head money on Riaz alias Raja who was wanted in 18 cases of heinous nature, Rs200,000 as head money on Karamat Ali alias Thatha who was wanted in 16 murder cases; and Rs200,000 as head money on Riasat Ali who was wanted in the murder of three real brothers.
“Similarly, Zafar Iqbal alias Papu, Awais Khokhar, Asad Ullah Khokhar and Mehboob Alam alias Channa, who were involved in more than 36 cases of heinous nature, were arrested by the CIA, which also arrested 107 gangs of criminals and faced 11 police encounters, during the past 10 months,” the DSP informed.
He further said that in 45 narcotics-related cases, the CIA recovered more than 3,500 bottles of liquor, 16-kg heroin and 91-kg Charas from the possession of the accused. “Also, 401 cases of illegal arms were traced wherein two hand grenades, 14 rifles, nine Kalashnikovs, 361 pistols and hundreds of bullets were recovered,” he added.
Answering a question concerning the reputation of CIA SP Umar Virk, the spokesperson said that there were two reasons for this. “One, SP Virk was speedily promoted from ASI to SP on the basis of his performance, because of which his fellow officers who are not on par with him feel jealous and propagate negative things about him. Two, since he is a hard working officer, his colleagues who cannot perform like him resort to spreading disinformation.”