RAWALPINDI: The City District Government Rawalpindi has completed arrangements for the Ashura procession, including placing containers to close the route from all sides at Raja Bazaar. However, the closure of the thoroughfares to the main procession route will create problems for Azadars coming to the downtown area to attend Majalis on Wednesday.

The local administration and law enforcement agencies closed the six-kilometre-long traditional route of the Ashura procession from all sides on Tuesday night.

Containers were placed at Ganjmandi, Kashmiri Bazaar, City Saddar Road, Gawalmandi, Committee Chowk, Asghar Mall Road, Kohati Bazaar and Liaquat Bagh.

Ashura procession route closed from all sides creating problems for Azadars coming to downtown areas

Only five entry points have been allocated for the participants of Majalis in imambargahs located in these areas. More than 70pc imambargahs in the city are located in the downtown areas.

District Coordination Officer (DCO) Talat Mehmood Gondal told Dawn that foolproof security arrangements had been made after taking leaders of all schools of thought into confidence.

Mr Gondal said there would not be any chances of sectarian violence in the city as all the religious scholars had promised to cooperate with the local administration to maintain peace in the city.

The garrison city witnessed sectarian clashes on Ashura in 2013 during which mosques and imambargahs in Raja Bazaar area were burnt down. Besides, 13 people were also killed during the clashes.

The DCO said eight companies of the Army and Rangers had been put on an alert for the security of the Ashura procession.

“The administration held talks with all religious scholars before making the security arrangements to avoid any untoward incident. Pillion riding has been banned while the mobile phone service will be suspended,” he added.

However, criticising the security arrangements, the organisers of the Ashura procession said the administration and the local police created problems for the Azadars to enter the imambargahs.

Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen spokesman Husnain Zaidi told Dawn that the Punjab government was creating problems for the Azadars in the name of security as the administration failed to allocate proper entry points for them to the area.

“In some areas in Rawalpindi, the police stopped people from going to imambargahs, saying there was a security threat. It is the duty of the law enforcement agencies to make security arrangements without creating problems for the participants to offer their religious rituals,” he said.

He said for the 9th Muharram procession in the federal capital on Tuesday, the local administration had allocated an entry point at Aabpara which was six kilometres away from the imambargah, forcing women and elderly people to walk to the imambargah.

Tehreek Nifaz Fiqa-i-Jaffarya (TNFJ)’s control cell incharge Ali Mehdi also criticised the government for not making the security arrangements as per the Moosvai-Junejo agreement of 1985. Under the agreement, the government is bound to take the organisers of the procession into confidence before making security arrangements.

He said the closure of cell phone services was also creating problems for the Azadars.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2016