RAWALPINDI: Two helicopters will be used for aerial surveillance of the Muharram 10 procession and 150 CCTV including 15 high-tech, revolving ones will be installed along the route of the mourning procession, City Police Officer (CPO) Abbas Ahsan told Dawn.

He said 10 companies of the army will also be deployed in Rawalpindi district in addition to the four companies of Rangers.

He said two Rangers companies and 2,200 police personnel were deployed in various parts of the city to provide foolproof security to the mourning procession for the Muharram 7 procession on Tuesday.

Of the two companies of Rangers, one was deployed at Faizabad and the second at the TMA building. Two other companies remained on-call.

The CPO said though there is no specific terror threat, a security plan has been jointly prepared for Muharram processions by the police and army in order to maintain law and order in the city and that police patrolling in and around the city would also be increased.

Policemen have been deployed on the rooftops of buildings in order to ensure no one throws bricks, stones or causes other mischief from the rooftops during the mourning processions.

The Rawalpindi police had requested the inspector general of police, Punjab to provide 50 reserves of police and 40 of Elite Force commandoes. However, the Rawalpindi police were provided with 29 reserves of police, including seven from the Punjab Constabulary, five from police training institutions and one from PC Sihala.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018