RAWALPINDI: In an effort to muster up 130,000 uniformed police personnel for security duty for the Feb 8 elections, the Punjab police have allocated 23,000 personnel from various units of the Punjab police to assist other law enforcement agencies.

According to official sources, a total of 227,000 security personnel will be deployed on election duty throughout Punjab. To ensure the availability of the police personnel, Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar sent a letter to the Commandant Punjab Constabulary Farooq Abad, DIG Traffic, Special Protection Unit (SPU) DIG, and Training & Punjab Highway Patrol Additional IGP.

The IGP said in the letter that the Punjab police have to gather 130,000 uniformed police personnel out of the available force for security duty during the general elections.

As per requirement, the police have allocated 6,000 police personnel from the Punjab Constabulary, 4,000 from the Traffic Police, 3,000 from the Special Protection Unit, and 1,000 from police training institutes, which makes up a total of 23,000 police officials for election duty.

23,000 personnel taken from traffic police, SPU and other units

In the same way, the RPOs of the regions and the CPOs and DPOs of the districts have been asked to keep the IG office informed about the deployment of the police officials for election duty.

A day before the IGP Dr Usman Anwar allocated the 23000 police personnel, he told reporters in Rawalpindi that there were security and law and order concerns about elections.

He had the authorities had been informed about the demand for the police force. He also pointed out at least 227,000 officials were required for election duty across Punjab for which the Election Commission had been informed.

He further said that Punjab police comprised a total of 180,000 personnel, out of which 130,000 have been set aside for election duty.

The Punjab police will perform security duty with the other law enforcement agencies including the army, rangers and Quick Response Force (QRF) will ensure peaceful general elections.

The IGP has already hinted that some political personalities have been facing threats, though he did not name anyone. He said the security for such leaders had been beefed up.

2,777 sensitive polling stations

The Rawalpindi police have already categorised 2,777 polling stations in the district as highly sensitive, sensitive and normal due to the security situation. According to sources, out of 2,777 polling stations, 580 polling stations have been categorised as ‘A’ (highly sensitive), 978 as ‘B’ (sensitive), and 1,219 categorised as ‘C’ (normal).

A meeting regarding security arrangements for polls had been held by the CPO Rawalpindi. All the SDPOs and SHOs were directed to hold meetings with returning officers and keep in contact with them regarding security arrangements.

As part of the security preparations, the police have been asked to assess how many CCTV cameras will be needed to be installed at the highly sensitive polling stations and also to identify the highly sensitive areas where the troops, Rangers and QRF personnel would be positioned.

Every station house officer has also been instructed to secure surety bonds from those organising public meetings and processions and to ensure that the location of such events was chosen with security in mind.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2024