LAHORE, Aug 13: The number of those booked in the ongoing Punjab government campaign against extremism and hate literature has risen to 2,100 during the last one month, it is learnt on Sunday.

Of them, around 948 have been accused of having misused loudspeakers and places of worship, and publishing hate literature in Lahore only, Additional IG Khwaja Khalid Farooq, the city police chief, told Dawn. He said 864 had been booked on the charges of stoking hatred through loudspeakers in mosques and 84 others on charges of publishing hate literature.

“The arrests are being made as part of the federal government’s directions which wants us to keep a close watch on all religious groups and their activities, especially misuse of places of worship and printing of hate literature,” the police chief said. Besides arrests and registration of cases, Mr Farooq said the policemen had been deputed to follow and record all activities of the leaders who belonged to various religious groups, including outlawed organisations.

“It is a clear-cut policy of the government that there should not be any tolerance for elements trying to fan sectarian and hatred.”

Earlier in the first two weeks of the campaign, the police had booked around 1,000 religious and prayer leaders.

The record available at the Punjab Central Police Office says the arrested men included prayer leaders, seminary administrators, and printers and publishers.

The Punjab police sources say some members of the outlawed religious groups had also been rounded up during the campaign and their interrogation would help make more arrests.

Meanwhile, an official order issued by the Punjab IGP office has asked the district police heads to maintain close liaison with nazims and notables of their respective areas to coordinate in the campaign. They had been asked to have meetings with the nazims who will further issue warnings to religious and prayer leaders about misuse of loudspeaker and mosques.

The police record says all the district police heads in the province through their field officials had got a detailed survey of the mosques and other places of worship in their areas. Details like names and sects of mosques, prayer leaders, besides the number of students temporarily and permanently living there had been registered, the record added.

The IGP has directed the police heads to get surety bonds furnished from prayer leaders and religious leaders who were booked in the campaign but later set on bail. The police heads had been asked to get in writing from them that they would not indulge in any such activities again.