Bilal Siddique Kamyana tells the Lahore Press Club the city is safe and warns false complainants of action under the anti-rape law. His own figures show abduction cases up nearly a quarter in two years, with a growing share holding up.
LAHORE: Lahore is a safe city with no room for the underworld, land-grabbing groups or extortion mafias, Capital City Police Officer Bilal Siddique Kamyana said on Monday, citing a 47% fall in heinous crime this year. He said crimes against women and children were a “red line” for the Punjab chief minister, but warned that people who file false cases would face legal action.
Speaking at a “Meet the Press” programme at the Lahore Press Club, accompanied by DIG Operations Faisal Kamran and DIG Investigation Zeeshan Raza, Kamyana said police and the press had a long relationship and that “constructive criticism and fact-based reporting” were key to a healthy society. Citizens could move around the city without fear “even late at night”, he said.
Kamyana said heinous crime in Lahore had fallen 47% in 2026 compared with 2025. By category, he cited declines of 68% in car theft and street robbery, 67% in car snatching, 63% in motorcycle snatching, 45% in snatching, 44% in robbery and in motorcycle theft, and 37% in burglary.
Violent crime fell more slowly. Attempted murder was down 17%, and murder only 9%.
The figures broadly match the sharp fall in car theft reported earlier this month from Safe City data, though they fall short of the 70% drop in crime that the chief minister has cited, a claim questioned in these pages for lacking published data. Police said this year they had arrested 5,212 suspects from 2,410 criminal gangs and recovered property worth more than Rs1.51 billion in cases registered in 2026, and had brought around one million cases “to their logical conclusion” over several years.
Police attribute the improvement to strategy and teamwork. The province’s Crime Control Department, which targets organised gangs, has also been credited by the government, though its record on encounters remains contested.
Abductions: rising, and more holding up
The CCPO’s figures on crimes against women tell a more complicated story. Cases of abduction of women registered from January to October rose from 4,354 in 2024 to 4,888 in 2025 and 5,380 in 2026, an increase of about 24% over two years and 10% in the past year.
Kamyana said most of these cases were later cancelled: 94% in 2024, 95% in 2025 and 84% this year. Police often cancel abduction cases when investigations find that a woman left home of her own will, for instance to marry against her family’s wishes, and that the family registered a case to pressure her or the man involved.
But the falling cancellation rate means far more cases are surviving scrutiny. Applying the police rates to the registered totals, about 261 abduction cases were not cancelled in 2024 and about 244 in 2025. This year the figure is about 861, more than three times as many. Part of the gap may reflect 2026 cases still under investigation, which could be cancelled later, but the trend deserves explanation.
‘False cases’ and the anti-rape law
Kamyana said the chief minister had a zero-tolerance policy on offences against women and children, and that their protection was being ensured “at all costs”. At the same time, he said legal action under the Anti-Rape Act would be taken against those who lodge false cases.
His figures suggest police see false complaints as widespread. About half of rape cases registered in the past three years had been cancelled, he said, along with 26% to 38% of gang-rape cases and 89% to 91% of cases involving crimes against children.
Rights advocates are likely to question both the numbers and the message. Cancellation can mean a complaint was false, but it can also mean a complainant withdrew under family or community pressure, or settled out of court. Researchers have found that Punjab registers most of Pakistan’s reported rape cases while convictions remain around 0.4%, and that several Punjab districts failed to share crime data even when the Information Commission asked. A public warning about prosecution for false cases, delivered by the city’s police chief, could deter genuine victims from coming forward.
Police point to the other side. DIG Investigation Zeeshan Raza said the recovery rate in cases involving women and children was 99%, and that investigations relied on human intelligence and modern forensics. DIG Operations Faisal Kamran said police registered cases promptly whenever a crime was reported.
The press conference came days after Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz gave Punjab police four weeks to show results in curbing crimes against women and children, describing their protection as her red line. The CCPO used the same phrase on Monday. The province has also sent officers abroad to learn GPS tracking of offenders, and the CCPO recently told visiting Sindh officers that public trust was the true measure of policing.
Lahore’s own record shows the challenge. In rape cases, arrests often come within hours, but convictions rarely follow.
Lahore Basant 2027: deadlines to be enforced
Asked about Basant, Kamyana said the timelines set for the manufacture and sale of kites and string would be strictly enforced. Under the deputy commissioner’s notification, manufacturing is allowed only until March 14, sale from February 10 to March 14, and flying on March 12 to 14, 2027. Police have already seized thousands of kites and arrested a constable supplying banned gear.
DIG Kamran said the government was also working to promote tourism in Lahore, and that fact-based reporting was an important responsibility of the media. Press Club President Arshad Ansari presented the CCPO with a commemorative shield at the end of the programme.
For most Lahoris, the fall in car theft, snatching and street robbery is the change they will feel first, and the police deserve credit for it if the figures hold. The tougher test is the one the chief minister has set: crimes against women and children. There, the CCPO’s own numbers show reports rising, more cases surviving investigation and a stubbornly high number of cancellations. Independent publication of the data, district by district and with outcomes, would allow the public to judge whether Lahore is as safe for its women as it is becoming for its cars.
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