LAHORE: Barring some scuffles between the political parties workers, the voting process remained peaceful and continued uninterrupted throughout the day in four constituencies of the provincial capital on Sunday.

A minor skirmish was reported at Lalik Jan Chowk, DHA, in NA-131 where the supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) confronted each other. However, the situation was controlled by the law enforcement agencies.

Some incidents of uprooting of the PTI camps were also reported in Farooqabad and Misri Shah in NA-124. The PTI candidates protested the uprooting of their camps by police and also requested the inspector general of police (IGP) to take notice of the issue. A skirmish between the supporters of PML-N over the distribution of food was also reported in NA-131.

Lahore Police had deployed 12,000 personnel under the supervision of 12 SPs to provide security to 881 polling stations. Of them, at least 193 were declared sensitive in category A. At least four police officials and four volunteers along with the army officials were deployed on the security of polling stations falling in the category A. CCTV cameras were used for monitoring and surveillance while the Police Response Unit (PRU) and Dolphin Squad remained on patrol.

Senior police officers, including CCPO BA Nasir, DIG Operations Shahzad Akbar, Chief Traffic Police Officer Liaqat Ali Malik and SSP Operations Asad Sarfaraz Khan also remained on patrol to monitor the situation. The traffic police also made special arrangements.

Chief Traffic Police Officer (CTO) Liaqat Ali Malik said all the officers from constable to senior traffic police officers remained on duty for maintenance of flow of traffic on the day. The traffic wardens set up diversion on the roads near polling stations. DIG Operations Shahzad Akbar said that Lahore police had proved itself as a professional force.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2018