A report headlined "Security plan for Ramazan chalked out", appearing in this newspaper last Friday, that is day the new moon was sighted, must have made a somewhat comforting reading to the people lately shocked by the terrorists' prayer time onslaughts on mosques and Imambargahs.
For one thing, quoting Sindh Inspector General of Police Syed Kamal Shah, it made pointed references to a plethora of directives he had issued to the capital city police officer, Karachi, and regional police officers of Hyderabad and Sukkur, for stringent security measures during Ramazan at a high-level meeting held in Karachi.
The central point of the report was that the Sindh police had planned special security arrangements for Ramazan to avert any terrorist activity during Taraveeh at mosques and Imambargahs across the province.
The area police have been asked to pinpoint sensitive spots and to enforce strict security measures there. Mention, in this regard, has been specifically made of deployment of police personnel in plain clothes at sensitive places, so as to keep a watch for suspects, in addition to the stepped up patrolling on mobiles and motorcycles.
Notable among these directives are also the ones issued to TPOs, sub-divisional police officers and SHOs to review the respective Town Contingency Plan (TCP) afresh, in consultation with the peaceful and law abiding citizens and the mosques and Imambargahs committees.
The IG's urged them to ensure against parking of vehicles around mosques and Imambargahs during Taraveeh, and instructed the police officers to advise mosque and Imambargah committees to open the main entrance only for Taraveeh and other prayers. All this put together, will point to the extra security mainly for Taraveeh prayers.
Understandable though this may be in view of the recent happenings, one may be intrigued by the omission of other potential targets of the terrorists'. As repeatedly pointed out in these columns, the most effective way of countering terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, is beating them on their strategy of surprise attacks through counter-intelligence, and at the same time by mobilising local volunteer forces.
However, encouraging it is to note a creeping realisation of the need of associating the people with the anti-terrorist efforts. If put to work on scientific lines, it can certainly mark the beginning of a people's war against terrorism, the eventual success of which cannot be doubted.