Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Inam Ghani on Monday said that Lahore Police has taken exemplary action against the occupation mafia and thugs and retrieved over billions of rupees worth of private and government properties. The police chief said that the land grabbing mafia should be wiped out, and every rascal who causes trouble for God’s creatures should be brought to justice. He revealed these details while presiding over a review meeting of professional affairs of Lahore Police at the Central Police Office. During the meeting, the crime graph of Lahore including operations against occupation groups and arrests of miscreants were also reviewed in detail while CCPO Lahore briefed IG Punjab about the operations and results of police teams in the first four months of 2021. During the meeting he further said that in order to protect the lives and property of the people and maintain law and order in the society, the operations against criminal elements especially thugs, occupation groups and criminals involved in street crimes should be intensified under a comprehensive strategy, so that these elements which cause trouble to the citizens can be chained and severe punishments can be meted out by the courts. He further said that groups occupying private and government properties and their supporters do not deserve any concession and legal action should be taken irrespective of their social status and designation while detailed reports of these operations must be sent to Central Police Office every 15 days. He further said that no concession should be taken against the builders of illegal bases and parking lots of buses and vehicles while legal action against illegal cable operators and their workers should not be delayed. He further said that the pace of operations against rascals could not be slowed down and the command officers themselves should supervise the operations to arrest the A category rascals. Lahore CCPO Ghulam Mahmood Dogar while briefing IG Punjab said that during the first four months of this year, operations against thugs and occupation groups have reduced the number of 15 calls for robbery and dacoity by 35% as compared to last year. During the first four months of this year, there were 404 less cases of robbery and dacoity and 212 fewer cases of street crime were registered as compared with last year. Elaborating on the action taken against the occupation groups, he said that 617 persons were arrested on 313 complaints received against the occupation groups this year and a total of 3745 kanals 8 marlas of private and government land worth Rs 34.23 billion were retrieved. He further said that after arresting 38 accused, 124 kanals of land were relinquished from 32 properties of overseas Pakistanis, likewise after arresting 195 accused 2019 kanals and 12.5 marlas of government land worth more than Rs 10 billion were relinquished from their possession while 418 accused were arrested and 1694 kanals of land worth over Rs 20 billion were retrieved after clearing 219 occupations under their control. Explaining the details of arrests of thugs, he said that 339 cases were registered in the ongoing operation against thugs during the first four months of this year. Out of 414, 412 thugs were arrested and 387 weapons were recovered from the accused, out of which 231 were sent for forensics and 71 for revocation of their licenses. Surety Bonds were taken from 25 rascals while action of 110/55 was taken against 129. IG Punjab instructed the officers to intensify intelligence based operations against criminal elements especially to maintain the writ of law, especially during the last decade of Ramadan. These operations should be continued on a daily basis to further reduce the crime graph, he added.