SIALKOT-As many as 154 processions will be taken out amid “foolproof” security from their traditional routes on Ashura in Sialkot district, police and administration officers said.
Gujranwala Division Commissioner M Asif and Regional Police Officer M Tahir visited the routes of the Muharram processions in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur tehsils here. They reviewed the security arrangements, and asked the organisers to follow the allowed timings for the processions and Majalis.
They also reviewed the foolproof Muharram security plan for Sialkot district while presiding over a high level meeting of senior officials of the law enforcing agencies (LEAs) at DCO office.
MPAs Ch Muhammad Ikram, Manshaullah Butt, DCO Dr Asif Tufail, DPO Abid Khan, senior member Sialkot District Peace Committee, ADCG Umer Sher, District Emergency Officer Syed Kamal Abid and traders’ representatives were also present.
The meeting was told that administration of Sialkot was successfully implementing the security plan to ensure peace, harmony and law and order in Sialkot district.
The Tazia, Alam and Zuljinnah processions would end at the main Imambargahs in Imam Sahib Chowk, Adda Pasruriyan and the other Zuljinnah processions coming from the different areas will merge in the main processions at Chowk Shaheedaan Sialkot city.
Thousands of mourners will join the processions and express their grief by wailing and beating their chests and flagellating themselves with hands and knife-fitted chains, DCO Asif Tufail stated while briefing Gujranwala Commissioner M Asif during a meeting held to review the Youm-e-Ashur security arrangement.
The DCO added that 10th of Muharram would be observed with reverence and religious solemnity amid tight security as the police were successfully implementing a foolproof security plan to ensure peace and complete harmony in Sialkot district.
Religious scholars will highlight the significance of the supreme sacrifice of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his companions who laid down their lives for supremacy of justice and righteousness.
The DCO told the newsmen that the district police had chalked a foolproof security plan to ensure peace and promote religious harmony on Ashura. DPO Abid Khan said that the police had adopted extraordinary measures for protecting the processions to be taken out at various places. In this connection, all the quarters do their job with honesty, he directed. He said the police force had been provided with modern and sophisticated weapons to avert any untoward incident.
The DCO said that the security was beefed up at all the 2,193 places and 270 seminaries while 331 processions and 1,257 Majaalis were and would be protected in Sialkot district from 1st to 15th of Muharram.
He added that the CCTV cameras and drone cameras were also monitoring the routes of processions. He said that the Pak Army would be available to help the Sialkot district administration if needed to maintain peace.
The DPO said that all the procession routes’ areas would be sealed for security purposes in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur tehsils on Ashura. He said that as many as 2,882 police personnel were performing the Muharram security duties in Sialkot district.