The Lahore police has requested the Interior Ministry to shut down cell phone services in the city as security measures were beefed up on Friday for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s ‘Tsunami Plus’ rally at Iqbal Park today (Saturday), Pakistan Today has learnt.
According to provincial intelligence sources, the law enforcement agencies had sought blocking the cellular services in the city from 12noon to 9pm. The ministry is yet to respond to the police’s request, they added.
Meanwhile, police sources said that DCO Noorul Amin Mengal had ordered a check of all identification cards of drivers and registrations of the vehicles that would be used to transport PTI workers to the Minar-e-Pakistan for the meeting.
They said that the Lahore police chief had also requested the district government to shut down the Metro Bus Service for the PTI rally.
While reviewing the security measures for the PTI’s rally, the police officials argued that the bus service should be closed for the day based on earlier incidents involving crowds damaging the buses, offices and blocking routes.
The police officials said that there would be a huge crowd commuting to Minar-e-Pakistan and thus, it would be advisable to prevent any untoward incident by shutting down the transportation service for the day.
Reacting to the news, PTI supporters condemned the Punjab government for attempting to sabotage PTI’s rally.
The fear of PTI success has generated panic. Now if people don.t turn up Imran can only point to hindrances placed in front of his rally and despite this if the rally is a success it will show his drawing power. What a stupid tactic. By closing all avenues to Lahore you might block attendance but you will not be able to block the minds. Is this how democracy functions in Pakistan? Time for change.
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