Islamabad Police and District Administration decided to take the elderly and child beggars to a beggar home being set up for them by Pakistan Baitul Mal (PBM) in Fatima Jinnah Park F-9.
Islamabad Police launched an operation against the professional beggars in the capital and set up special police squads to rid the city of professional beggars and shift the deserving to rehabilitation centres, said Naeem Iqbal, spokesman of Islamabad Police here on Thursday.
He said that data of the old, women and children beggars is being maintained who adopted the profession due to poverty, will be sent to PBM Beggar Home. The decision to launch the operation was taken by Islamabad police after receiving instructions from district administration to take effective measures against the entry of professional beggars as well as at the traffic signals and in the markets, he added.
They will be provided shelter and food apart from making them skilful citizens, enabling to earn their livelihood with dignity and respect. Stern action would also be taken against those professional gangs who are involved in sending these professional beggars into the cities, police spokesman said.
Special squads have been constituted to curb the menace, which have been provided vehicles for patrolling in various areas, especially, Aabpara, Kohsar, Secretariat, Margalla, Shalimar, I-9 and rural areas, he said.
The squads have been given the responsibility to prepare legal cases against professional beggars and shift the deserving ones to the Protection Centre near F-9, he said, adding the capital police have also decided to take strict action against those who forced children and women to resort to the practice. Beggary is an organised crime as gangs pick up children from remote areas after paying some amount to their poor parents and take them to different cities, especially, Islamabad, on the pretext of providing respectable jobs to them.