The procession made it to Karbala Gamey Shah at 5:30pm this year whereas it had been reaching the place after 9pm for the last 10 years or so.
The procession had been taken out from Nisar Haveli inside the Walled City at 10:15pm on Thursday night under the supervision of Lahore police and armymen.
“Thank God it ended peacefully,” Lahore police chief Khwaja Khalid Farooq told Dawn, saying that the cooperation of members of both the sects had made it possible for the police to maintain peace.
“The situation was sensitive because Ashura had fallen on Friday when a large number of Sunni worshippers flocked to mosques. Some incidents in Sargodha had made it all the more sensitive.” However, he said, there was no attempt to disturb peace from either side.
He said the peace committees, local government officials and public organizations had done a lot to create harmony this Muharram.
Mr Khwaja denied reports that his men had urged the procession to speed up when it came out of the Walled City. “The organizers did everything to end it at the earliest and even thanked the administration for arrangements made for the procession.”
Other parts of the province, too, remained peaceful except for three incidents in the Sargodha division, which were all termed accidental by the administration.
“The stampede at a Majlis was an accident, and there is no chance that some mischief-maker had anything to do with it,” Sargodha DIG Mirza Shams said.
In another incident in a village, he added, a mourner died from a bullet wound when the gun of a private guard went off.
He termed the reason for a clash between the two sects in Bhalwal district ridiculous. “The Sunnis had objected to a Majlis just because the place where it was in progress did not have a curtain.” The matter was suppressed the same day, he claimed.
However, police sources said there were chances of involvement of anti-state elements in the stampede. “Lets see what an inquiry committee reportedly set up by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi makes of it,” a senior Punjab police officer said.
Moreover, the officer said that for the first time in at least five years, there had been no terrorist activity during the first 10 days of Muharram in Punjab.
This Muharram began amid a serious threat to law and order, as terrorists struck at US installations in Karachi. Foreigners and their installations were guarded well all over the province in view of the threat.
Earlier, the route of the main Zuljinah procession was scanned by the police, city administration, bomb disposal squad and army with metal detectors and sniffer dogs.
A large number of mourners participated in the procession and arranged Quran Khawani and Majalis in different places en route to Karbala Gamey Shah. Audio and video cassettes of Noha were also played on the occasion.
MCL and Wapda staff accompanied the procession along with doctors and paramedics. Wapda staffers remained busy disconnecting and restoring electricity on the route before and after the passage of Tazias. The MCL carried out patchwork and a spray along the route. Sanitary workers sprinkled water on the route besides routine sweeping.
Troops escorted the procession while they were also kept on standby in base camps in various parts of the city. Police, commandos, Elite Force personnel and volunteers also guarded the procession.
Police and intelligence officials recorded the procession on video as part of the preventive measure for identification of outlaws in case of any untoward situation.
The troops later returned to their base camps, where they would be available for another two days in case of any untoward situation, according to police sources.