ISLAMABAD, March 15: The government has taken all necessary additional precautionary measures to ensure law and order during Muharrum starting from Saturday.

“We have approved an Islamabad Plan, and handed it over to all the four provincial governments to maintain law and order at all cost in Muharrum”, said Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider.

Talking to Dawn here on Friday, he said security had been beefed up, particularly in the major cities, to avoid any untoward incident.

“We have made available increased strength of police and other law enforcing agencies to have peace and security in the centre and the provinces”, he added.

He said the federal and provincial officials had been engaged in extensive work for the last two weeks to finalise the security plan.

Asked whether he feared the incidents of terrorism and subversion during the month, he said that all aspects had been covered to make sure that the sacred month could pass peacefully.

The minister said Pakistan had been the victim of terrorism, and as such it had to be vigilant specially on occasions like Muharrum.

Generally, he said, various religious sects in Pakistan were peaceful, but some time, owing to their differences, enemies of the country succeeded to exploit the situation.

Answering a question, Mr Haider said that personally he did not foresee any hidden foreign hand to disturb peace and tranquillity during the month. “But here too, we have taken enough precautions and the agencies concerned are dealing with this aspect very carefully”, the minister said.

In reply to another question, he said that last year the Afghan refugees had been warned against leaving their camps during Muharrum. This year too they have been told to remain in their premises, and avoid being exploited by any group or individual for taking part in any anti-social activity.

He was hopeful that the Afghan refugees would now prefer to go back to their country where reconstruction and rehabilitation work had been started by the international community.

The minister also said that great vigilance was being observed on borders with a view not to allow groups or individuals to enter the country, and conduct any terrorist and subversive activities during the holy month.

He said that generally the law and order situation in the country was satisfactory.