Peshawar - As many as 6,111 cops were deployed to provide security to the Pakistan Democratic Movement rally and manage other affairs in the provincial capital on Sunday, stated Capital City Police Officer Muhammad Ali Gandapur.
The movement held its public meeting at Kabootar Chowk in the city. Sharing the details, the police official said that 246 cops were deployed at entry points for general public, 71 posted at entry point for VIPs, 225 guarded the rally’s stage, 132 manned blocking points and the maximum numbers of the policemen, ie 1384, were deployed at the sensitive and vulnerable establishments and places.
Similarly, the cops were deployed at a number of other places such as logistics, intelligence plan, patrolling plan, general public routes, VIP car parking, nakabandi points, street plugging points, and others.
Also, traffic arrangement plan was put in place for the PDM rally. Ali Gandapur said that 933 personnel had been deployed for traffic arrangements in Peshawar. Ring Road remained blocked from the points of GT and Charsadda roads while people used the alternate routes of Northern Bypass, GT Road and Charsadda Road.
Heavy vehicles to the city were banned, in coordination with the adjacent districts of Peshawar. People coming from Islamabad and Mardan were asked to use GT Road from Rashakai Interchange instead of the Motorway. Similarly, the commuters coming from Charsadda used Charsadda Road those from southern districts used Frontier Road and Inqilab Road to reach the provincial capital. The vehicles were parked near Budnai area. The mobile squads, rider squads and forklift teams also remained on the city roads to ensure traffic flow.
Meanwhile, the TransPeshawar, the company set up to manage BRT, shut BRT service on Sunday to avoid any untoward incident amid the PDM rally. A press release from TransPeshawar stated that the bus service would resume on Monday morning, 6am.