Staff Reporter
Punjab Inspector General of Police Inam Ghani has said that joint operations by police and customs teams should not be spared for effective eradication of smuggling, directing the police officials to extend all possible help to customs teams during their operations in any district of the province.
“If noose around big fish is tightened to curb smuggling, small fish will run away on their own.
Therefore, joint operations should be carried out on the basis of information sharing against the culprits involved in the heinous business of smuggling so that the smugglers are caught and brought to the book.”
IG Police Inam Ghani expressed these views while presiding over a meeting at Central Police Office here to review assistance of the police force in customs operations.
The meeting was attended by Basit Maqsood Abbasi, Collector Customs and Asad Rizvi, Regional Director Customs Intelligence.
The IG directed the CCPO Lahore and Additional IG Special Branch to hold monthly meetings with the customs officers to put an end to smuggling and maintain close coordination on the cases and operations registered.
He further said that Additional IG Operations should write a letter to all DPOs to provide all possible police support to the customs teams during the operations so that the DPOs would take all possible steps under their supervision in this regard.
He further said that a detailed report on the cases registered in the customs complaint across the province and the latest status of investigation on them should be presented in the next meeting.
The IG Punjab nominated AIG Operations at the provincial level and SSP Operations Lahore at the Lahore level, as the focal person for the Customs Department and asked the Collector Customs to keep coordination with Focal Persons wherever it needs police support in Lahore or Punjab.
The meeting was also attended by Additional IG Operations Sahibzada Shehzad Sultan, CCPO Ghulam Mehmood Dogar, Additional IG Special Branch Zaeem Iqbal Sheikh, DIG Operations Lahore, Sajid Kayani and AIG Operations Syed Zeeshan Raza among other officers.