LAHORE: As many as 10,000 policemen will be deputed for the security of mourning procession and majalis in the city during Muharram.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said this on Saturday while presiding over a security review meeting at Qila Gujjar Singh Police Lines. He will also hold a meeting of divisional peace committees.

Operations DIG retired Capt Muhammad Suhail Chaudhry, Chief Traffic Officer Muntazir Mehdi, SP security Rashid Hidayat and other police officers attended the meeting.

The CCPO said the security arrangements had been made for over 5,000 majalis and 650 mourning processions to be taken out during Muharram.

Of them, he said, 3,868 majalis would be held during the first 10 days of the month, while 143 mourning processions would be taken out in the city division during Ashura days.

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

Mr Dogar further said that to ensure sectarian harmony no hate campaign would be allowed on social media.He appealed to the religious scholars to promote interfaith harmony in society and reject differences on the basis of sect and religion.

The CCPO said checking of all suspicious vehicles and persons entering the city should be intensified through e-police checking mechanism at the entry and exit points of the city. He ordered elimination of encroachments on the route of the central mourning procession and provision of civic facilities in collaboration with the district administration and other related departments.

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

The CCPO said the participants in the main mourning procession would be provided three-layer security and nobody would be allowed to enter the processions and majalis without complete checking.

He said the central mourning procession and other sensitive events would be continuously monitored with the help of cameras of the Punjab Safe Cities Authority and the district administration.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2022