DADU: The provincial police chief, taking notice of negligence in maintaining proper security at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, has sought a report from the Hyderabad DIG and Jamshoro SSP reminding them that a suicide attack inside had left nearly 90 devotees dead and over 300 others wounded in February 2017.

Sindh Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon has written to the DIG to take appropriate measures for maintaining the stringent security ensured soon after the bomb attack and make sure that no lapse occurred.

Subsequently, the DIG conveyed the IG’s concern to the Jamshoro SSP and issued necessary directives to him, according to sources.

The issue surfaced when the IG came across a piece of information from Additional Inspector General (Operations) retired Captain Haider Raza mentioning that as many as 58 close circuit television (CCTV) cameras out of the total 183 installed in the control room No.1 and 2 at the shrine had gone out of order. The AIG also mentioned that half of the one dozen walkthrough gates installed at different entry/exit points of the shrine did not function properly or stood damaged. He also informed the IG that certain boundary walls of the shrine were not high enough to prevent anyone, possibly attacker/terrorist, from climbing them. He said the height of the walls was planned to be increased but this part of the original security plan had remained incomplete as yet.

The top police officials noted that the shrine was visited by several thousand devotees every day and any security lapse could result in heavy loss of life or breach of the shrine’s sanctity.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2022