682 thugs netted in one month

JAKARTA (JP): In an anti-hoodlum campaign, the city administration, in cooperation with the Jakarta Police, netted 682 thugs and shot dead 36 others across the city in a one-month operation starting April 16, an official said.

Deputy governor Abdul Khafi said on Wednesday that most of the thugs not proven guilty of committing crimes had been released, while some others were still awaiting for their cases to be dealt with by the police.

He explained that among the 682 thugs arrested, 88 had been detained by the West Jakarta Police. Four of them had been released for lack of evidence. The rest were still awaiting a verdict. The West Jakarta Police also shot two thugs dead.

The South Jakarta Police he said, shot dead seven thugs and arrested 135 others, of whom 67 were released for lack of evidence while 51 were still being processed.

The Central Jakarta Police shot three thugs dead and netted 83 others, of whom 40 had been released. In addition, they also shot two other thugs, who were currently being treated in hospital.

North Jakarta Police shot one dead and arrested 59 others, of whom 10 had been released.

And Jakarta Police shot dead 23 thugs and arrested 277 others.

Kahfi added that the city administration had also netted 20,946 public order offenders in the capital during the same period.

They included beggars, pickpockets, street vendors, street singers, prostitutes, transvestites, street children and homeless people. Street vendors ranked first, with 7,791 people.

Kahfi said many of those arrested were sent to the city's social rehabilitation center in Kedoya, West Jakarta. Children were sent to their parents, arrested prostitutes were sent to a rehabilitation center in Cipayung, East Java, while some others were sent to their hometowns.

Meanwhile, the head of the city's security and order office, Hadi Utomo, said that the administration would send around 100 homeless people to Sumatra to farm or work on plantations. (01)