LAHORE, Feb 23: Over 5,000 policemen have been deputed to maintain law and order during Basant and Jashn-i-Baharan.

Capital City Police chief additional IG Malik Muhammad Iqbal said this at a meeting of senior police officers held here to review security arrangements in this regard.

He said a strict action would be taken against the elements involved in aerial firing and flouting the kite-flying law. Such elements would be arrested on the spot.

Mr Iqbal said the police had taken effective steps to cope with any incident of sabotage on the festivals as well.

He said the house owner would be arrested in case of violation from his residence, and all SHOs had been provided ladders and searchlights for the purpose.

He said all divisional SPs would be responsible for the maintenance of peaceful atmosphere in their divisions, and the SHO concerned would be held accountable for any violation. He said 105 mobile squads would also patrol round the clock in the city.

The AIG said control rooms had been set up at the offices of the SSP (operations) as well as all divisional SPs for close coordination among different departments. He said a central control room had been established in his office.

To ensure smooth flow of traffic on Basant, he directed the SP traffic to supervise arrangements. SSP (Operations) Aftab Ahmad Cheema, SP Security Syed Ahmad Mobin, SP Traffic Waseem Ahmad Khan and SP Mobiles Muhammad Sohail Chaudhry were also present at the meeting.