LAHORE: The Punjab Police have arrested more than 134,000 proclaimed offenders so far this year, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday, up from about 116,000 reported at the end of August, an increase of roughly 18,000 in six weeks.
Of those held, 31,382 were in Category A, which police use for suspects wanted in serious offences, and more than 100,000 were in Category B.
Police also arrested more than 43,000 people who had absconded from court proceedings, 5,893 of them in Category A and 37,132 in Category B, and 18,988 habitual offenders, of whom 6,373 were in Category A and 12,615 in Category B.
Lahore accounted for 32,527 of the proclaimed offenders, about a quarter of the provincial total, along with 13,247 court absconders and 6,077 habitual criminals.
Inspector General Abdul Kareem praised the teams involved and ordered that the operations continue with greater effect.
Absconding suspects are one of the main reasons criminal trials stall, and bringing them before the courts is central to the provincial government’s push to cut crime.
The drive runs alongside the operations of the Crime Control Department, which have drawn sustained criticism. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in February that at least 924 suspects were killed in 670 encounters involving the department between April and December 2025, describing a systemic policy of extrajudicial killing. Police say those killed were hardened criminals who opened fire on raiding teams.
Rana Sanaullah, adviser to the prime minister, last week defended the department and challenged critics to name a single innocent person among those killed. Families have also gone to court alleging illegal detention by CCD teams.
Arrest totals measure activity rather than results. Without conviction figures, or a breakdown of how many suspects were picked up by the CCD, the numbers say little about whether the crackdown is putting offenders behind bars or simply moving them through the system.
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