LAHORE: The Special Branch Punjab on Thursday revealed a serious security lapse during Muharram last year which led to some 194 violations.

Exposing inefficiency of the police officers of the province, Additional IG Special Branch Mohammad Farooq Mazhar held them responsible for failure in implementing the security protocols in letter and spirit.

In a conference of the regional police officers (RPOs), chaired by IGP Punjab Mohammad Tahir, he said many new processions were also taken out without permission in various districts of the province.

An official, privy to the information, told Dawn that Mr Mazhar had suggested to the IGP that the police officers must be directed to avoid such major blunders to thwart any untoward incident during Muharram.

Newly appointed IGP called the first RPO conference to devise security arrangements for Muharram. All the RPOs, city police officers (CPOs) and district police officers (DPOs) attended the conference besides many police officers from Central Police Office and Additional IG Counter Terrorism Department Punjab Rai Tahir.

The official further said the CTD in the conference also shared some disturbing information, saying the ISIS was targeting Shias in Afghanistan and the same group was trying its insurgency in Pakistan to hit the same sect.

The CTD, in this respect, identified various districts in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to oversee possible activities of ISIS by enhancing maximum security level besides putting in place all other available possible options to foil its designs.

The districts that required heightened security arrangements included Multan, Mianwali, Rawalpindi, Sargodha division, Layyah, Lahore, Bahawalpur, DG Khan and Muzaffargarh, the officer said while quoting the CTD officials.

While addressing the conference, the IGP admonished some senior police officers for reaching the meeting too late.

Meanwhile, an official handout says IGP Mohammad Tahir directed the police officers for four-layer security for the Majalis and processions in sensitive districts by utilising all the available resources. He asked them to ensure CCTV monitoring and video recording of all the processions and added that special control rooms should be set up for monitoring security arrangements in all districts for Youm-e-Ashur.

The IGP also said commandos in civvies should be deployed for security of Majalis and processions and snipers be deployed on the rooftops of the buildings along the routes of sensitive processions in sensitive areas.

He directed the officers that all the RPOs and DPOs should supervise security plan of main processions themselves.

During the session, the IGP was briefed that across Punjab more than 140,000 policemen would perform security duty for 7,763 Shia Masajid, imambargahs and other sensitive mosques while 36,638 Majalis would be held during Ashura.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2018