Keeping in view growing threat of radicalisation taking place on social media, the Punjab Police intends to increase its presence on such media.

The Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Suresh Arora on Thursday said the state police intends to have its own Facebook, Twitter and Youtube accounts to interact directly with the citizens, give timely responses to queries, provide a complaint redressal mechanism, and showcase the positive work done by the police. These accounts are all set to be launched this month.

Giving details of the achievements of 2017 and plans for 2018, the DGP said peace, communal harmony and law and order were successfully maintained after the conviction of DeraSachaSauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on August 25 in Panchkula.

He said during the year, Punjab Police busted eight terrorist modules with the arrest of 47 persons and seizure of 43 weapons, including automatic weapons. Nearly 21 foreign handlers involved in providing logistical and financial support to these terrorist modules have also been identified, he said.

The DGP said these modules were mainly being operationalised, networked and financed by operatives based in Europe, North America and Middle East, and were aimed at targeted killings of members of organisations associated with the minority community, in order to spread communal disharmony and revive terrorism in Punjab.

Revealing the comparative figures relating to heinous crimes in 2016 and 2017, the DGP said murders came down to 656 from 771, attempt to murder to 795 from 862, kidnapping/abduction to 1462 from 1591, robbery to 116 from 147, and dacoity to 26 from 43.

As far as the cases under The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, registered FIRs had more than doubled to 12,309 from 5,906 in 2016, while recovery of heroine had increased to 186.865 kilogram (kg) from 139.596 kg. Recoveries of Poppy Husk (43,734.5 kg against 33,189 kg in 2016) and Opium (447.56 kg against 354.68 kg in 2016) also showed a significant increase.
Arora said 149 snatched vehicles, 183 firearms and Rs 1.5 Crore cash were recovered from organized criminal gangs. A mobile application having dossiers of more than 80,000 active criminals with artificial intelligence and face detection system had been operationalised, he said, adding that court permissions had been obtained for conducting 159 trials through video-conferencing in organized crime cases.