Chandigarh: Punjab Police have arrested 62,641 individuals, including gangsters and criminals, after conducting 1.16 lakh raids across the state in seven months of the ‘Gangstran Te Vaar’ campaign. Special DGP (Law and Order) Praveen Sinha said that police teams recovered 1,057 weapons along with 2,860 live cartridges and 335 magazines, 247 sharp-edged weapons and 15 hand grenades from the possession of the arrested individuals since the launch of the campaign on Jan 20.“Apart from this, preventive action has been initiated against 31,064 persons, whereas 18,536 persons were verified and released after questioning,” he said, adding that police teams also arrested 1,612 proclaimed offenders (POs) during this period.On Thursday, police teams arrested 420 individuals after conducting 663 raids, whilepolice teams took preventive action against 225 persons and arrested 10 proclaimed offenders (POs), he said. The ‘Gangstran Te Vaar’ campaign will continue with the same vigour, said the Special DGP, adding that people can anonymously report information related to wanted criminals and gangsters, and also share tips on crime and criminal activity, through the Anti-Gangster Helpline number 93946-93946.Meanwhile, police teams continued their drive against drugs “Yudh Nashian Virudh” for the 537th day with the arrest of 84 drug smugglers on Thursday and recovery of 1.8 kg heroin, 1 kg opium, 120 kg poppy husk, 633 intoxicant tablets/capsules and Rs 40,000 drug money from their possession, an official spokesperson said. With this, a total of 76,136 drug smugglers were arrested under the drive, the spokesperson said, adding that as part of de-addiction, Punjab Police convinced 24 persons to undergo de-addiction and rehabilitation treatment on Thursday.
