LAHORE: Capital City Police Officer DIG Bilal Siddique Kamyana has directed the senior police officers to identify trouble spots in the city to resolve the religious disputes and conflicts in consultation with stakeholders in view of the upcoming Muharram.

He directed them to take some necessary security measures by obtaining surety bonds as mandatory requirement to ensure peaceful atmosphere and FIR-free Muharram.

The CCPO issued these instructions while approving a security plan for the forthcoming Muharram in a meeting he presided here on Monday.

DIG Operations retired Capt Muhammad Suhail Chaudhary, DIG Investigation Kamran Adil, SSP Operations Mustansar Feroze, SSP Investigation Imran Kishwar, SPs and respective police officers attended the meeting.

The CCPO said the security arrangements were made for over 5,000 Majalis and 650 mourning processions which would be taken out during Muharram.

Of them, he said, 3,868 Majalis would be held during first 10 days of the month. The maximum number of 143 mourning processions would be held in the city division during Ashura.

He directed the SPs and the supervisory officers to stay in constant liaison with the organisers of Majalis and processions, licence holders, scholars of all schools of thought including Shia community, businessmen and local representatives.

The SPs and other circle officers should supervise operational and logistic matters, including briefing of the staff in the religious programmes, security of routes in Muharram, enforcement of sound system act and imposition of restrictions on routes and timings of Majalis and processions.

He said the social media monitoring, search and sweep operations, geo-tagging, police pickets and registration of tenants should be ensured to avoid any mischievous actions of anti-peace elements.

The CCPO said checking of all suspicious vehicles and persons entering the city should be intensified through the e-police checking mechanism at the entry and exit points of the city.

Elimination of encroachments on the route of the central mourning procession and providing civic facilities should be ensured in collaboration with the district administration and the related departments.

He said the construction of vantage points, installation of walk-through gates, metal detectors and CCTV cameras at the Imambargahs should be ensured in collaboration with the administrators.

“It has been decided in the meeting that the participants in the main mourning procession would be provided with three-layer security and nobody would be allowed to enter the processions and Majalis without complete checking”, Mr Kamyana said.

The central mourning procession and other sensitive programmes would be continuously monitored with the help of CCTV cameras of Punjab Safe Cities Authority and the district administration.

The Lahore police chief said strict action would be taken against those spreading hate material and divisive propaganda.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2022