District administration finalises security plan for Ashura

LAHORE: The district administration and Municipal Corporation Lahore (MCL) have finalised a strict and foolproof security plan for maintaining peace during processions and majalis on 9th and 10th Muharram, Pakistan Today has learnt.

A total of 5307 (category A 599, category B 3517 and category C 1211) majalis will be held across the city whereas 99 licensed mourning processions (category A 18, B 78 and C 3) will being held out in the city however, 551 unlicensed processions (category A 125, B 371 and C 55) will be held during the Muharram 9 and 10 on the condition of the approval by district administration.

According to the plan, the mobile service will be suspended on the routes of processions whereas the metro bus service from M A O College to Shahdara will also remain close for the security purposes.

For the fool proof security, the helicopters will monitor the city during these days and to help the police more than 500 scouts of civil defense department will also perform their duties on the sensitive places.

On the routes of processions, a total of 64 ambulances and bomb disposal squad will be deployed for any emergency.

In order to control any emergency situation 3 temporary emergency hospitals will also be established on the routes whereas an emergency center will be established in Nasir Bagh which will work for 24 hours and one fire brigade bus will also be deployed to emergency center.

A total of 318 CCTV cameras will work on the routes to monitor the processions whereas walk-through gates will also be established at the entrances and exit points and complete physical search of the mourners will be ensured adding with metal detectors.

A special command and control room will also establish at the DC office which will work 24 hours and monitor the processions.

On the other hand, the home department Punjab, through a notification imposed a ban on pillion riding on Muharram 9 and 10 under article 144 to avoid any untoward incident.

Similarly, the inspector general (IG) Punjab has also given the directions for Ashura to the CCPO Lahore and all RPOs through a video link conference. While giving the directions the IGP said, “Every DPO should personally monitor the security arrangements in category A processions and snipers should be deploy on the rooftops of the buildings in the vicinity of sensitive majalis.

A category processions would be monitor through drone cameras and teams of special branch will check their routes however, the areas will also check by the sniffer dogs and bomb disposal squad and the parking should be at least 100 feet away from the mosques and imambargahs.