Cops violate ban on tinted glasses, unregistered vehicles

PESHAWAR: A crackdown has been launched on unregistered motorbikes and vehicles with tinted glasses in the provincial capital, but the drive seems to be only against commoners.

A large number of officers of police and other departments are using vehicles with tinted glasses as well as cars with fake number plates, but no action is apparently being taken against them. The Capital City Police have been directed to go after the vehicles having tinted glasses since it can prove a serious threat to law and order.

Besides, the force has been instructed to impound motorbikes that are not registered with the Excise Department.

“The issue is that most of the vehicles stopped at random checkpoints for having tinted glasses or fake number plates are in the use of officers. They include both junior and senior cops as well as officers from other departments,” a constable at a checkpoint told The News.

A source informed this scribe that apart from official cars, a large number of junior and senior officers were using case property and non-custom paid vehicles with fake number plates. Most of these vehicles are equipped with tinted glass.

“The trend increased in the past years after threats to police officers and frequent attacks on their cars by militants. A huge majority of the cops then started using vehicles with tinted glasses and fake number plates so they cannot be identified and harmed,” the source informed.

Apart from bringing an end to the use of tinted glasses and cars with fake plates by their own officers, the police bosses also need to check the alleged criminal activities and use of drugs by the cops.

Recently criminals in the police force were found involved in yet another incident of kidnapping, causing embarrassment to the force that is supposed to go after the criminals and provide security to the common people.

In most of the cases, hardly any action was taken against the seniors who have been protecting the criminal elements in the force.

In the recent incident, three members of a kidnappers’ gang busted by the Chamkani Police were found to be policemen. They had allegedly kidnapped a contractor, belonging to Punjab, from the limits of the Chamkani Police Station on February 24. The kidnapped person was later released after payment of ransom.

An official said that police while working out the case busted the gang involved in the kidnapping and arrested its four members. Three of those held were found to be policemen from the Capital City Police. They were identified as Hamid, Wajid and Nauman. They are likely to be dismissed from service after a departmental action.

Last year, three policemen allegedly kidnapped a government employee from the posh Hayatabad locality, kept him hostage for hours and let him go after placing heroin in his car to implicate him in a false smuggling case.

The police had to take notice of the incident after the department to which the government official belonged took a stand and stressed that he was innocent. The employee was later acquitted by the court while the policemen involved were arrested and action was taken against them.