December 16, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 5, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: The Islamabad police have divided the capital territory into two zones for the interim period till the election while a regional control room has been set up in Rawalpindi to monitor law and order situation in the districts of Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal.

Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Shahid Nadeem Baloch told Dawn on Saturday that the capital territory had been bifurcated into East and West zones for administrative and security purposes till the election.

The East zone comprising Aabpara, Kohsar, Secretariat, Barakahu, Shahzad Town, Nilor, Sihala, Koral and woman police stations will be supervised by Additional Superintendent of Police Nasir Aftab, while the police stations of Margalla, Shalimar, Industrial Area, Sabzi Mandi, Tarnol and Golra falling in zone West have been given under the control of SP investigation Dr Moin Masood.

The two officers have been assigned the responsibility to maintain law and order in their respective areas. They would deploy police personnel as and where required and monitor the situation.

The IGP said the decision had been taken to avoid disturbance and any untoward incident before and during the election.

“This is a new concept and we will see it how it works,” Mr Baloch said, adding the concept would be sent to the authority concerned for approval and implemented permanently if successful.

He said as the city was spreading fast and its population growing, there was a need to create more posts of senior police officials for security arrangements and maintaining law and order.

The IGP said another objective of the division was to provide more relief to the people.

Meanwhile, leaves of police personnel in Rawalpindi have been cancelled to ensure elaborate security measures during the elections. Regional Police Officer Nasir Khan Durrani established a control room at his office to monitor law and order situation in the three districts.

The control room would monitor the situation round-the-clock and would be linked with the control rooms set up in the offices of district police officers of Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal.

The control rooms would be operational till January 10 and the officers on duty would report to the assistant inspector-general of police operation, city police officer Punjab and the regional police officer.

The control room established at the RPO office would be supervised by SP Range Crime Zariat Kiani and DSP legal.