RAWALPINDI: As security during the general elections comes under increasing scrutiny, Rawalpindi police say they have prepared election security plans and are looking for 1200 extra riot police to assist existing personnel.

With a government ban on displaying weapons to be strictly enforced during and after the elections, police have sought surety bonds from candidates for both national and provincial assemblies regarding weapons.

City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi Ahsan Abbas told Dawn that the police are taking all possible measures to maintain peace during the election campaign and voting periods.

“Ban on display of weapons will be implemented in letter and spirit,” he said.

Mr Abbas said that 2,579 polling stations in Rawalpindi were categorised as A, B and C for security purposes.

Of these, 305 highly sensitive polling stations fall in A category, 404 less sensitive in B, and the remaining 1,870 fall in C category.

The categorisations were made on the basis of existing tensions between political rivals in different localities and clashes between them during previous elections. Type ‘A’ generally includes these localities, he said.

‘B’ type polling stations were determined on the level of previously assessed violence while ‘C’ type stations had no history of electoral violence, according to the CPO.

As part of security arrangements, the CPO said that the district had been divided into sectors and sub-sectors.

Each police station in the district constitutes “one sector” and a police reserve will be at the disposal of the sector police station during polls.

Meanwhile, polling stations have been divided into sub-sectors of 20 stations, with each sub-sector assigned two police personnel on a motorbike and a patrol van with six police personnel.

The CPO also confirmed that he had requested the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab for 1200 extra police personnel to assist local police, as Rawalpindi district faces shortages in manpower and anti-riot equipment.

When asked whether the police have water cannons in case there are violent protests, he said the police would demand water cannons but that he will try to get fire brigade vehicles to meet that requirement if necessary.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2018