Chandigarh, March 15:
A year after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government came into the power, the Law and Order situation in the border state has witnessed a considerable improvement as majority of criminals and gangsters have been put behind the bar, while, many of them chose to leave the state amidst the strict vigil kept by Punjab Police on the movement of anti-social elements.
In last few months, Punjab Police under the supervision of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav has conducted many special operations, and in majority of operations the latter himself hit the ground running to lead the entire Police Force to conduct these operations, which were aimed to instil sense of security among the general public and increase presence of the cops to infuse fear among the anti-social elements. The operations including Cordon and Search Operations (CASOs), raids at hideouts of dreaded gangsters, special vehicle checking operations, Operation Seal, night domination operations, etc were conducted.
The official data from March 16, 2022 to March 15, 2023 reveals that the Punjab Police have busted 26 terror modules with the arrest of 168 terrorist/radicals after recovering 31 Rifles, 201 Revolvers/Pistols, 9 Tiffin Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs), 8.72Kg RDX and other explosives, 11 Hand Grenades, two Sleeves of disposed Rocket Launcher, 30 Drones, and one loaded Rocket Propelled Grenade.
Similarly, the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF), since its formation on April 6, 2022, has succeeded in busting 162 gangster/criminal modules after arresting 582 gangsters/criminals and neutralising five, after recovering 586 weapons, 131 vehicles used in criminal activities. Pertinently, immediately after coming to power, the CM Bhagwant Mann-led state government formed a special Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) headed by ADGP Promod Ban to wipe out gangsters from the state.
DGP Gaurav Yadav said that there were six major heinous crime incidents including an RPG attack at Intelligence Headquarters building at Mohali; Murder of Punjabi Singer Shubhdeep Singh alias Sidhu Moosewala; Killing of Bargari sacrilege accused Pardeep Kumar; RPG attack at PS Sarhali, Tarn Taran; Killings of Sudhir Suri and Bhupinder Singh Chawla alias Timmy Chawla, that took place since April 2022, and the Punjab Police have managed to effectively solve all these cases in a record time.
To make Punjab a drug-free state, the DGP said that the Punjab Police had waged a decisive war against drugs which resulted in the arrest of as many as 17568 drug smugglers after registering 13094 FIRs since March 16, 2022 against them. “Punjab Police have effectively recovered a record 863.9Kg heroin in just one year,” he said.
Pertinently, Punjab Police have recovered 716.9 Kg Heroin from across the state and additionally, 147.5-Kg heroin was recovered by the teams of Punjab Police from Seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra, taking the total effective recovery of heroin to 863.9 Kgs. Apart from this, Police have also recovered 888-Kg opium, 1229-Kg Ganja, 464 quintals of poppy husk, and 70.16 lakhs tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids from across the state. The Police have also recovered Rs 10.36 crores of drug money from the possession of drug smugglers arrested in the past one year.
He said that under the ongoing special drive to arrest Proclaimed Offenders (POs)/Absconders in NDPS cases, Punjab Police have arrested 828 POs/Absconders since March 16, 2022.
DGP Gaurav Yadav reiterated that the Punjab Police is committed to root out the drug menace from the border state and several special anti-drug drives are being launched time-to-time to keep check on drug peddlers.
Meanwhile, after coming to power, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has also increased the ex-gratia amount to Rs 1 crore to be given to the families of Police Personnel in case of death in the line of duty. This amount is in addition to the insurance cover worth Rs 1 crore being given by the HDFC bank. The Punjab Government has also enhanced the budget allocation for Police Welfare from Rs 10 crore to Rs 15 crore.
