LAHORE: As many as 9,292 mourning processions and 37,223 Majalis will be held in all the districts of Punjab during the month of Muharram-ul-Haram and the Punjab police would deploy 194,086 police officers, including volunteers for security duties.
This was told to the Punjab Inspector General Police (IGP) Faisal Shahkar during a high-level meeting held at the Central Police Office (CPO) on Friday to review security arrangements for the month of Muharram.
While instructing the DPOs, RPOs and CPOs to devise a comprehensive four-tier security plan by keeping in view the rising political temperature in the country, the IGP directed the officers concerned to install CCTV cameras on main procession routes of 9th Muharram and Ashura Day besides arranging drone cameras for aerial monitoring.
He said the security of Majalis and mourning processions of Ashura is the first priority of the Police department and indiscriminative actions will be taken against those who try to spread religious hatred and sectarianism. The IG directed to take strict action against violation of loud speaker act and broadcasting and promotion of malicious content.
“Religious harmony should be promoted with the cooperation of scholars and Ulemas of all schools of thoughts, community leaders, businessmen and civil society”, he stressed and directed the field officers to ensure active role of peace committees in collaboration with the district administrations concerned.
He directed to formulate a special security plan for Imambargahs, Ashura processions and Majalis in all the sensitive cities including Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Gujranwala.
He emphasised upon the supervisory officers to review security arrangements of Muharram by personally visiting field areas, adding that patrolling hours should also be increased during night.
According to Faisal, lady constables along with lady volunteers should be assisted in security and checking in women’s Majalis and processions.
On this occasion, DPO Pakpattan gave a detailed briefing on the security arrangements being finalised for the Urs celebrations of Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Ganj Shukar on 5th Muharram. The IG while giving instructions said that activities of banned organizations and persons included in the Fourth Schedule should be closely monitored.
He also directed to implement an effective traffic plan keeping in view the timings of Majalis and mourning processions so that the flow of traffic could not be disrupted, especially on important highways. He added that walkthrough gates, metal detectors and CCTV monitoring and video recording should also be arranged.
He instructed the officers to ensure implementation of restrictions on fixed hours of processions and Majalis at any cost. “Search, sweep, combing and intelligence-based operations should be continued in and around the places of Majalis and mourning processions”, he directed and said that plainclothes commandos and snipers should also be deputed on the rooftops of buildings coming on the routes of sensitive processions and Majalis.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022