LAHORE: Special teams of Lahore police have been initiating crackdown on regular basis 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 1, 115 professional beggars under ‘Anti Beggary Act’ and registered 968 cases against them during last four days at different police stations of the city. Accordingly in city division, the police arrested 250 beggars, Cantt Division 146 beggars, Civil Lines Division Police 214, Iqbal Town Division 172, Sadr Division 182, whereas Model Town Division Police arrested 161 beggars during the crackdown. City Traffic police also got registered 51 cases against beggars disturbing citizens and the flow of traffic on roads junctions and traffic signals.
As many as 1, 115 beggars involved in begging were taken into custody in collaboration with Child Protection and Welfare Bureau as well as Social Welfare department. Capital City Police Officer Lahore Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said that all the divisional SPs had 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 organized criminal gangs, he added. Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said the children involved in begging were being handed over to Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, whereas drug addict beggars had been sent to ‘Beggars Homes’ of Punjab government for rehabilitation purpose. The CCPO Lahore also appealed to general public to refrain from giving money to these professional and non deserving beggars as most of them are habitual and involved in crimes.