RAWALPINDI: The police in Rawalpindi have been put on high alert for three days in the wake of intelligence that a terrorist group could attack government installations and police establishments, a senior police officer said.

The official told Dawn that the group had planned to attack installations, especially in the downtown city area. He said the alert was meant for government installations, including the police.

He said that there was no specific threat, but it couldn’t be taken lightly, and as such the police had not been taking any chance to let anybody disrupt public peace.

As part of tightened security, random checking of vehicles especially motorcycles has been started and additional police pickets have been established on different roads. The police have also started strict surveillance of members of banned outfits already placed on the watch list.

The senior police official said that every person entering the police stations or other police establishments were subjected to search while taking mobile phones inside the police stations had been banned.

Separately, after the arrest and release of senior columnist Irfan Siddiqui along with his son’s tenant under tenancy law the Rawalpindi police have launched a crackdown on unregistered tenants besides checking of motorcycles.

Police said that on the directives of City Police Officer Mohammad Faisal Rana all divisional SPs and SHOs had started a crackdown on unregistered tenants and checking of motorcycles plying on the city roads without number plates.

A spokesman for the police while quoting the CPO said that action would be taken against those persons who had rented out houses without proper registration to people involved in anti-social activities.

He said the landowners who avoided tenant registration were in fact facilitators in this connection and therefore the police would carry out crackdown on such persons.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2019