LAHORE, Oct 6: Security was heightened in the city and elsewhere in the Punjab after assassination of Maulana Azam Tariq and his aides, on Monday.

The police called in its reserve forces, which started patrolling the city roads late at night and was directed to be on its job till further orders.

The police also held a two-hour general hold-up from 10pm to midnight in the city in which every suspicious vehicle and man was searched. Special deployments were made at all the sensitive spots, including mosques, churches and other places of worship. Security provided to the foreign missions also in the province has been beefed up.

The police manned all the entry and exit points of the city and searched each vehicle passing from there.

Emergency meetings of all the police heads were held in the Punjab in which elaborate security arrangements were planned and special squads were directed to patrol cities to guard against any untoward incident.

“We will do our best to provide security to the life and property of the people,” a police spokesman quoted Punjab IGP Masood Shah as saying.''