LAHORE: Inspector General of Police, Punjab, Inam Ghani on Monday said that women harassment
and violence cells were being set up for prompt registration of cases.
He directed all Regional Police Officers of the province to set up women harassment and violence cells within a week in districts and also launch a full-fledged publicity campaign for these special cells for public awareness. He directed the DIG Operations Punjab to closely monitor the establishment of women harassment and violence cell in all the districts of the province within the stipulated timeline. He said DIG Investigation Punjab would monitor every case registered in these cells and also focus on monitoring of the speedy investigation on merit so that accused involved in gender crimes could be convicted by the courts.
He issued these instructions while giving instructions to all officers of the province during the video link RPOs conference on prevention of crimes against women held at the Central Police Office. Inam Ghani said that anti-women harassment and violence cells would work under the supervision of city police officer and district police officer and in these cells a specialized unit of lady police personnel would perform the duties as victim support officer to provide all possible support to the affected women. The IGP said the victim support officers would liaise with the affected women and be present with them during the investigation and trial hearing.
The IG Punjab directed that appropriate telephone lines should be set up in anti-harassment and violence cells to receive phone calls and response to crime calls received from women would be ensured within 15 minutes. During the meeting, the IG Punjab directed that a digital database of suspected and habitual offenders involved in crimes against women should be prepared while the crime mapping system should be made more active by identifying sensitive areas related to crimes. He said that police patrolling and deployment of force at sensitive places should be increased while assistance could be sought from field officers as well as other units in this regard.