39

Restoring crime records
An integrated system for records of crimes and criminals is indispen­sable for successful police working. The crime against property is committed after careful preparation for the concealment of both the stolen property and the criminal. The crime against person, like murder and hurt, on the other hand, is often committed impulsively. For centuries, the society had been generally static. The criminal, till now, operated in and around the village of his resi­dence and the police, taking the police sta­tion as the basic unit, listed the rogues village-wise in its area of jurisdiction. As the criminals often re­mained within their own areas, the police knew them and kept them under a watchful eye.
As the society became mobile and urbanized, a need was felt for cen­tral­ized records. The maximum centralization visualized in the 1930s was at the district level as the criminal, though sometimes operating beyond his vil­lage, was hardly reaching be­yond his district. The Central Intel­ligence Agencies (CIAs) were thus established in all dis­tricts to maintain rec­ords of criminals with description of their physical features, speech, religion, resi­dence, the usual methods, hideouts, as­sociates, patrons, etc. It was a great advancement for those days in this part of the world. The CID at the provin­cial level also had records but more concerning political, terrorist and sectar­ian activities.
After might became right in 1958, the priority of the police changed from curbing crime to curbing people. The police was more after the likely adversaries of the dictator than the burglars preying on ordinary citizens. As a result, the maintenance of crime records suffered from neglect. The personal files and history sheets of criminals disappeared and many of them were to become later the members of Basic Democracies to gain protection! In the changing milieu, the records of the police stations and the CIAs fell into dis­use and were neither properly maintained nor updated regularly. On the other hand, new, unrecognizable faces entered the organized criminal world and, to boot, they were very mobile. Even trying to trace them was like groping in the dark, not to speak of catching them.
By 1991, when I took over as IGP, there were practically no re­cords anywhere. A generation of police officers had grown up without being aware of the usefulness of this effective instrument of police working. There were some experienced officers here and there with patchy personal knowledge about the crime and criminals but there was no way to have an integrated and comprehensive picture of the state of crime. A perplexed police officer would come to me and bemoan that some unknown desperate youngsters descended from somewhere and disappeared God knows where after committing crime, with­out leaving any traces. Some would even hallucinate and blame some anti-Pakis­tan foreign forces.
The situation, according to my reading, was the result of a long neglect and its cumulative effect had rendered them blind and ineffective. Only the professional skills and the light of the records could show them the way. As most of the officers were not aware of the usefulness of re­cords, they would give me blank looks whenever I would talk to them on the subject. On the other end were some officers, who had been abroad and talked of advanced technologies for finger print records, computers, photography, etc., but did not have the slightest idea how to apply them actually on the ground. We could not use the latest technologies in a vacuum because whatever system we had was no longer working. A computer, for example, could not produce any re­sults if there was no information to feed it. It was necessary to restore the previous system of crime records and then mould it to suit the modern gadg­etry.
I put practically everybody on the job. The range DIGs and dis­trict SPs were made personally responsible for updating the records of active criminals committing crimes against property. In the process, they not only rebuilt the records on the old formats but also added their own variations of registers, forms, photographic albums, video tapes for gait and speech peculi­arities, etc.
Habibulla Niazi, DIG Rawalpindi, took very keen interest and designed 30 new registers to record the latest methods of criminals. Ahmad Naseem, DIG Sargodha, Aftab Sultan, SP Khushab, and Fateh Sher Joiya, SSP Sar­godha, did a marvelous job by updating all records in a very methodical man­ner. A meeting of the representatives of all CIAs was held in Sargodha so that they could observe closely the system and its implementation and then adopt it.
Nasir Durrani, SP Attock, and Ashraf Marath, SP Sialkot, both very in­telligent sons of celebrated police officers, devised their own computer pro­grammes for identifying and detecting criminals and storing information about them. They gathered useful data, especially about stolen vehicles, and used it effectively to trace the criminals. They gave their presentations in a conference of DIGs so that the sys­tem could be introduced in other districts also.
Rafi Ahmad Pervez Bhatti, very knowledgeable on the subject, pre­pared a comprehensive paper on crime records. He discussed the ways not only to restore the old records but also to make them acces­sible to all users with new technologies. He proposed that data should flow from the po­lice stations to the district CIAs, the ranges and ultimately the Crime Branches of the provinces, which should have a centralized data bank. The data should be available imme­diately through a telecommunications network for use in the daily operations anywhere in the country.
With the reconstruction of the crime records, I was trying to kin­dle the dark and dangerous path of the police so that they did not grope in the dark alleys aimlessly. Some light, though only flickering, did blaze their trail.

Records bring success. It is not the physical fighting capability alone that can give the police an upper hand and success against the criminal. It is the combination of professional skills and sound organization, coupled with the right cause and motivation that provides the real strength to the police.
A case of abduction for ransom was a good example. Moon, the only son of a factory owner in Pakpattan, was abducted dur­ing daylight. The po­lice came to know about it indirectly as the parents were afraid that their son might be harmed if they reported the crime. The initial information about the abduction and the vehicle used for it was sketchy. It was also not known in which di­rection the criminals had gone. It was only by chance that a servant had noticed the boy being forcibly pushed by the culprits into a car.
The telephones of the boy’s father were put under observation. The de­mand for ransom came after three days. The abductors had to make elaborate arrangements to hide the abductee and then negotiate the demand for ransom. Therefore, keeping in view the rendezvous indicated by them for deliv­ery of money, the police could guess their location. On the basis of in­formation from the phone conversation of the abductors, Malik Khuda Bakhsh, SP Pak­pattan, concluded that they were somewhere in Kasur or La­hore dis­trict. He studied the records for identification of pos­sible gangs and, by process of elimination, narrowed his search down to three.
He arranged for an effective and constant coordination with the Lahore and Kasur Police. As police vehicles were not only obviously identifiable but were also not dependable on the road, the sur­veillance of the suspects was carried out discreetly in personal or bor­rowed vehicles. The communication was mar­velous and information was promptly available to every policeman involved in the operation.
On the fateful day, the father of the abductee went to the given place with the ransom amount. Two culprits came armed in a car. They also had a follow-up car at a safe distance, with their armed companions in it. The vic­tim’s father, with the briefcase in his hand, came out of his car. As the cul­prits moved towards him, some “labourers,” working in the nearby fields and on the road, pounced upon them. Arms came out in seconds from both sides. The culprits were killed on the spot.
Their companions in the follow-up car reversed and, while firing, tried to run away. They were am­bushed by the armed “labourers” near them. They, however, did manage to get away but one of them, injured by firing, was left behind as he had stepped out of the car dur­ing the battle. He di­vulged that the abductee was hidden in a village near Pattoki. As a result of the consultation of records, the place was already un­der watch. After the spe­cific information was passed on the wireless network, the abductee was recovered safely be­fore the mauled, desperate and fleeing culprits in the fol­low-up car could reach him.
The “labourers” in tatters working near the rendezvous were a DSP, an Inspector, a Sub-Inspector, an ASI and some constables, all of them com­manded and con­trolled through small wireless sets by the SP, himself in tat­tered clothes. The recovery of the unharmed boy was enthusiastically cele­brated in Pakpattan and the SP and his team were warmly congratulated and feted by grateful and admiring citizens.

The police officers, who used to give me blank looks when I would em­phasize the usefulness of the records and speedy transmis­sion of needed in­formation, were now convinced. The use of records helped us in solving many apparently hopeless cases. The modern mobile society expected mod­ern means and outlook from the police. It was no longer possible to accept a constable taking information sheets on foot in a leisurely style from one po­lice station to the other months after the crime and that too out of a fear of the impending inspection. My emphasis on better records started bearing fruit as examples of unusual successes accumulated.
Two most dangerous criminals of Balochistan were shopping in Layyah when an ASI and two constables recognized and arrested them because they had seen their photographs in one of the police magazines started on my ini­tiative.
Hamid Mukhtar Gondal, SP CIA, Lahore, and son of Ch. Mukhtar Ah­mad Gondal, a retired DIG, worked out a case of abduction for ransom of a young man from Kamoki, mainly by concentrating on the crime re­cords and the modus operandi. He was able to zero in on the culprits and arrested the ring leader merely on suspicion on the basis of his study of relevant records.
But it was only a studied suspicion. The accused was a student leader and, in the absence of any solid proof, resisted the pressure during interroga­tion. But Hamid, in the light of records, was absolutely cer­tain of his guilt. The accused ultimately confessed and pointed out the hiding place in an un­derground cellar. The abductee was rescued, half dead for lack of oxygen. If Hamid had not quickly drawn the inference while working on his records and moved fast, the abductee would have died of suffocation. The records gave instant light to the police and a new lease of life to the victim.

Fighting car thieves with records. The theft of cars had become en­demic and organized in Multan while the police was in total disarray, having no idea of what was happening. Mirza Muhammad Ali, SSP Multan, care­fully built up elaborate re­cords of known car thieves, with their ages, meth­ods, vulnerable ar­eas, routes of es­cape, hideouts, cover-ups, and channels for the dis­posal of the stolen cars. He identified the gangs and their accom­plices, the skillful forgers, who changed the serial numbers of engines and chassis, the staff of the Excise and Taxation Department, who helped in the registration of the stolen cars on false documents, the patrons, who arranged the follow-up stages after the theft, like nearby or distant hiding places, sale of stolen cars, bail after arrest, etc.
In the light of his studies, Muhammad Ali took counter-measures and preventive steps. His pains paid off and car lifting almost ceased in Multan. He wrote a paper on the subject and I made it a model for the whole of the Punjab.
As a follow-up, the records of car thieves and stolen vehicles were pre­pared throughout the province. The information was transmitted and ex­changed speedily. Nasir Durrani computerized the data on cars crossing the Attock bridge, the entry point for NWFP and the tribal area. We proposed to do the same at other entry and exit points of the Punjab. The police placed under watch the places where vehicles were disposed off and converted, like Bilal Ganj in La­hore, where a new car could be dis­sembled into spare parts in minutes.

Ch. Tasaddaq, SP Bhakkar, with the help of reconstructed records, traced a large racket of car stealers and sellers, with its tentacles throughout the country. It had the patronage of influential MNAs and MPAs, who would buy the stolen Pajeros with false documents at 1/10th of the market price. (Pajero, of Mitsubishi of Japan, has become a four-wheel-drive vehicle of pres­tige for the feudals.) The master forger had a chain of his pupils through­out the country.
When Ch. Tasaddaq refused to yield to the pressures of the influential politicians, the gang managed to manipulate the legal procedure. The rele­vant magistrate would not give physical remand of the accused without which the investigation could not proceed further. The SP locked horns with the magistrate, with help from the Session Judge and the Deputy Commis­sioner.
The magistrate, however, went a long way in trying to help the crimi­nals. He threatened the police investigators with prosecution for contempt of court. He falsely accused the investigator of having snatched the case file from him. He also approached the Commissioner and the Chief Secretary with baseless allegations against the investigators. The Chief Secretary was initially so enraged that he demanded immediate action against the relevant police despite my explanations. Ultimately, he cooled down only after the Commissioner verified that the magistrate had been telling lies.
The gang of culprits then filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court with concocted allegations against the SP. Through manipulation, the alle­gations were turned into headlines of newspapers the next day to build further pressure. The Governments, both provincial and federal, wanted im­mediate action against the investiga­tion team due to pressure from the in­volved MNAs and MPAs, who were now panicky and wanted the investiga­tion to stop. I told the gov­ernment that the administrative decision must wait until the judicial verdict. Tasaddaq stood his ground and proved, with rec­ords of the previous court proceedings, that the same forger and his gang had filed as many as 87 writ petitions on similar grounds against various police officers to thwart successfully further investigations.
This time the forger’s luck ran out. The High Court dismissed his writ petition. Rana Ijaz Ahmad, advocate, appeared for the petitioner while Nazir Ahmad Ghazi, Assistant Advocate General, defended the police. Rana Ijaz felt very concerned for the forger. Shortly after­wards, SP Tasaddaq and his DSP, who was conducting the investiga­tion, were transferred and the forger once again managed to go free on bail. But by now all facts and records were with the police. He was involved in hundreds of such cases and was wanted not only in Bhak­kar but also elsewhere, including Sindh and NWFP. The benefi­ciary MNAs and MPAs, once they came to know all facts, helped the police in the recovery of stolen vehicles, even those under their own use. The forger and his companions were ultimately convicted in many cases.

Intelligent police officers with the help of records smashed many such gangs. Aamir Butt, Faizi and others, while brandishing arms, would snatch cars in broad daylight and would replace them with better ve­hicles at will. They roamed about the country, armed and in strength. Zafar Qureshi, SP Kasur, and his ASP, Dr Shafique, arrested them and many others after fierce encounters. The records helped a great deal in getting their convictions.
One such gang divulged during interrogation that the sitting Vice-Chairman of the Rawalpindi District Council was one of them. Eight stolen vehicles were recovered from him. He was released on bail within days as he was “an honourable man,” like Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. He was, however, challaned before the court for trial on the strength of the rec­ords.
For another gang, the patronage came from a federal minister. His cousin, Jhelum Khan, ran a roaring business in stolen vehicles at Miran Shah. The police was collecting evidence to link the minister when three of his henchmen were killed in an encounter near Gujrat. The criminals had snatched a car and were running away in it. The police waylaid them on receiving information on wireless. They opened fire on the police. A splendid fight took place on the National Highway N5 (G.T. Road) in broad daylight. The desperadoes died in action but martyred one constable and injured three others.
At Balloki canal headworks on the Ravi River near Lahore, a car was stopped for routine checking. When the police asked for their identity, they showed a chit from Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, of Jami’at-i-Ulema-i-Islam, and claimed to be his workers. While one police party engaged them in talking, the other searched the vehicle. The search yielded not only a big cache of arms but also a bomb of high potency. It was intended to be thrown on the police if an attempt was made to arrest them. They tried to run away but it was too late. Nor could they use the bomb.
During interrogation, they divulged that they had taken hundreds of ve­hicles into the tribal area of NWFP, where the normal laws still do not apply even five decades after Independence. They also had a hideout at Raiwind, near Lahore, for safe parking of the stolen vehicles until their disposal. It was a spacious underground construction while there were ordinary shops on the surface. Nobody suspected anything from the outside.