RAWALPINDI: Right up until Sunday night, only a select few officers knew of the plans to execute Mumtaz Qadri. Those who did, however, did not let on either. Expecting trouble, senior officers from the police and prisons department had chalked out a strategy to cope with the fallout from Mumtaz Qadri’s execution.

They reasoned that his supporters may rally if his family was summoned for their final meeting with the condemned man in broad daylight. This was why they were summoned to the prison late at night, and under a pretext.

According to police officials, the district administrations of both Rawalpindi and Islamabad had ordered police to chalk-out a security plan for Monday morning, expecting protests in the wake of a final announcement on Qadri’s mercy plea.

Although the heavy police deployment on Sunday night was confirmed district administration officials from Islamabad, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera seemed reluctant to comment when asked on Sunday night whether the security arrangements were being taken ahead of Qadri’s imminent execution.

“I have no such information so far,” the IGP had said.

Even as senior officials were stalling, Rawalpindi DIG Prisons Shahid Saleem Baig and Adiala Jail Superintendent Saeedullah Gondal had already received death warrants for Qadri and arrangements were underway inside the jail.

“We were committed not to disclose plans for Qadri’s execution before the process was completed,” a senior police official told Dawn.

Sources said that a police team was dispatched to Mumtaz Qadri’s residence to fetch his family for their last meeting, sometime after midnight. They were brought to the jail on the pretext that Qadri was ill and wanted to see them.

As many as 31 members of Qadri’s family, including his father Mohammad Shabir, brother Fazal Razzaq and wife were brought to the prison just after midnight and remained there for more than an hour.

Meanwhile, SSP Operations Malik Karamatullah Khan and team of Elite Force commandoes were tasked with securing the prison facility until the execution was carried out.

Rawalpindi City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Abbasi was also in the loop and, not taking any chances, did not even take calls from mediapersons.

Similarly, the officers who were tasked with transporting Qadri’s body to his Sadiqabad home communicated with their superiors in code until the body was handed over to his family.

Once the body was handed over, police began efforts to convince the family to bury him without wasting time, since police and intelligence agencies feared more protests the longer his burial was delayed.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2016