TAXILA: District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi Sajjad Zafar here on Friday said Taxila would be put on a high security alert during Muharram.

He was talking to mediapersons after presiding over a meeting of the tehsil peace committee at the TMA complex. City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi Hamayun Basheer Tarar, former MPA Umer Farooq, president PML district Rawalpindi Sardar Mumtaz Khan, tehsil president Fayyaz Khan and officials from the local administration and police attended the meeting.

The DCO said a multi-layer security plan had been prepared to avert any untoward incident or terrorist activity during the month.

He added besides the police, 14 companies of the army would be deployed in the Rawalpindi district. He said 10 companies of the Rangers would also be deployed on the procession routes and around the venues of majalis.

CPO Tarar said local peace committees and religious leaders of all sects would be involved in implementing the security plan to avert any untoward incident. 

He said the district administration was holding meetings with peace committees in every subdivision and tehsil to take the ulema into confidence regarding the security plan.

During the meeting here, religious leaders from different schools of thought presented their suggestions to ensure peace and harmony in the area.

FATEHJANG: District Police Officer (DPO) Attock Israr Ahmed Abbasi presided a meeting at Fatehjang to review security arrangements for Muharram on Friday. Mr Abbasi said it was the duty of scholars and religious leaders to avoid criticising each other, especially during Muharram, and work for the promotion of peace and harmony.

The DPO asked the participants to be vigilant about anti-state elements who always tried to create schism in society to achieve their nefarious designs.

Mr Abbasi said there would be no loadshedding during Muharram and in case of power failures generators would be provided to the organisers of religious gatherings by the TMA.

He said police would be deployed near imambargahs and action would be taken against anyone trying to breach the peace.

He also asked the imambargah committees to cooperative with the local administration and the police and bring out processions according to the routes by strictly following the scheduled timings.

Published in Dawn, October 25th , 2014