LAHORE: Punjab Police have intensified their crackdown on proclaimed offenders, habitual criminals wanted in serious crimes and court absconders, arresting more than 116,000 proclaimed offenders across the province, including Lahore, so far this year.
According to a Punjab Police spokesperson, the proclaimed offenders taken into custody include more than 29,000 categorised as A-category and over 87,000 in the B-category.
During operations across the province, police also arrested more than 35,546 court absconders. Of these, 5,254 were A-category and 30,292 were B-category absconders.
The spokesperson said 12,865 habitual criminals were arrested province-wide, comprising 4,406 A-category and 8,459 B-category offenders.
In the provincial capital, police recorded significant results of their own, arresting 26,868 proclaimed offenders, 11,229 court absconders and 5,203 habitual criminals in Lahore.
Inspector General of Police Punjab Abdul Karim commended the police teams involved in operations against proclaimed offenders, court absconders and habitual criminals, directing that action to arrest suspects wanted in serious crimes be continued without discrimination and without interruption.
The IG Punjab said that arresting proclaimed offenders, court absconders and habitual criminals would further improve crime prevention and the protection of citizens’ lives and property.
The categories cited in the figures carry specific legal meaning. A proclaimed offender is a person declared as such by a court under the Code of Criminal Procedure after failing to appear despite the issuance of warrants and public proclamation. The classification is not itself a conviction; it is a judicial declaration that the accused has evaded process, and it authorises police to pursue arrest and, in certain circumstances, initiate proceedings against the absconder’s property.
Punjab Police maintain an internal A and B categorisation for such offenders, broadly distinguishing those wanted in heinous offences — murder, dacoity, rape, kidnapping for ransom and terrorism-related cases — from those wanted in less severe matters. The heavy weighting of B-category arrests in the figures reflects the composition of the underlying pendency rather than any change in enforcement priority.
Court absconders are those who have failed to appear before a trial court after being summoned or after jumping bail, while habitual criminals are individuals with a documented pattern of repeat offending recorded in police history sheets and surveillance registers.
Clearing accumulated proclaimed-offender lists has been a recurring institutional priority for Punjab Police, in part because a large backlog of unexecuted warrants undermines the credibility of the trial process. Cases stall indefinitely when the accused cannot be produced, victims and witnesses lose confidence, and the resulting delay feeds into the wider problem of case pendency before the district judiciary.
Punjab is the country’s most populous province and its police force is correspondingly the largest, operating across more than three dozen districts through regional and divisional commands. Lahore alone accounts for a substantial share of the province’s registered cases, which is reflected in the capital’s contribution to the annual arrest totals.
Officials have said action against such elements will continue on a sustained basis, with performance in executing warrants forming part of the assessment of divisional and district-level police leadership.
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