4,408 beggars arrested in 33 days

LAHORE : On the directions of Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar, special teams of Lahore Police have initiated crackdown against habitual, professional and criminal record holder beggars to free the provincial capital from this nuisance.

Lahore Police in continuation of its crackdown against professional beggars have arrested as many as 4408 beggars in 'Anti-Beggary Act' and registered 4256 cases against them during the last 33 days at different Police Stations of the city. Accordingly City Division Police arrested 812 beggars, Cantt Division 637, Civil Lines Division Police 1095, Iqbal Town Division 458, Sadar Division 763 whereas Model Town Division Police arrested 643 beggars during the crackdown. City traffic police also moved to register more than 200 cases against beggars disturbing citizens and the flow of traffic on road junctions and traffic signals.

The beggars were taken into custody in collaboration with Child Protection and Welfare Bureau as well as Social Welfare department. CCPO Lahore Ghulaam Mahmood Dogar has said that all the divisional SsP have been given special task to arrest professional, fake disable and habitual beggars as most of them have criminal background but feign as beggars. The personnel of traffic police and CIA have been assisting the special teams to curb professional beggary and organised criminal gangs.

Dogar said the children involved in begging are being handed over to Child Protection and Welfare Bureau whereas drug addict beggars have been sent to Beggars Homes of Punjab government for rehabilitation purpose.