Our policy is to eliminate crime, not criminals: Punjab police chief

The Punjab Police is determined to eliminate crime from the province but there’s no truth in claims that police stages encounters as a means to achieve the objective, Haji Habibur Rehman, the provincial police chief, said on Saturday.
In an exclusive interview with Pakistan Today, Rehman said that his top priority was to strengthen a sense of trust between the police and the public, a motive that he believed had been achieved to a large extent.
He said that there are more than 7,500 desperate criminals according to police and district records that were involved in heinous crimes such as murder, rape, kidnapping for ransom and robbery. Countering such criminals was a challenge for the department and the respective task forces were doing their jobs with utmost sincerity and dedication, he said.
In response to a question, IG Rehman said that 450 criminals, who had been sentenced to death but had not been executed on account of a presidential order halting the execution orders, were a symbol of encouragement for other criminals. “Jails have become breeding grounds for young criminals because the deterrence of death penalty has been eliminated. These seasoned criminals became a source of inspiration for others wanting to pursue similar activities,” he said.
The IG told Pakistan Today that special teams had been formulated that worked at the subdivision and district levels to counter the growth of such an environment inside and outside prisons.
Giving a rough approximation, the police chief said that around 200 raids take place on a daily basis in Punjab where the police comes face to face with criminals. On most occasions they open fire on the police to which retaliation becomes necessary resulting in encounters.
He said that several police constables are injured and many have been killed in such operations. He maintained that this strategy had resulted in bringing down the crime graph in the province, citing the non occurrence of bank robberies as an example to support his stance.
According to the IG, load shedding was amongst the primary reasons that have caused rapidity in criminal activity. He asserted that load shedding resulted in unemployment, especially amongst the youth. Such an environment, he believed, forced people to resort to crime in order to meet the necessities of life.
Criminals, he said, migrate in groups from villages to metropolitan areas; commit crimes in the city and return to their hometowns. This practice makes it difficult for the authorities to identify and keep track of outlaws, he added.
Despite these hurdles, IG Rehman asserted that his department’s efforts have brought the crime rate down by 60 percent.
Responding to another question, IG Punjab said that he did not agree with the allegation that the police always turned up late on crime scenes allowing the criminals to flee and arresting innocent people instead.
He said the police was not functioning to reinforce criminals. If the allegation was true, no household in the province would have been safe, he asserted.
Talking about measures to enhance police performance and minimise corruption, the IG said an exemplary police force demanded that appropriate facilities be given to the personnel, similar to those given to the motorway police.
On a lighter note, IG Rehman talked about his career progression in the department stating that he joined the service in 1977 as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP). He served as District Police Officer (DPO) at Rahim Yar Khan, Toba Tek Singh and Pakpattan. He has also served as CCPO Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta and is at present, the 48th IG of Punjab.
Talking about his student life, the IG said that he had been a simple natured boy who avoided mischief and concentrated on academics. He said he had always been amongst the top students at school and college level and was a passionate debater.