LAHORE: The Auqaf Department is concerned over the reduction of donations to half owing to more than 50 per cent decrease in visitors at shrines, The Express Tribune has learnt.
An official of the Auqaf Department said that number of visitors had alarmingly decreased by half after the terrorist attacks on more than six shrines across the Punjab in since 2005, which were the shrines of Bari Imam, Data Ganj Bakhsh, Baba Khaki, Baba Fariduddin Ganj Shakar, Baba Haider Saeen, and Sakhi Sarwar.
The Auqaf Department, in charge of 534 shrines and mosques in the province, has blamed ‘insufficient’ security outside the premises of these buildings as the principal cause behind it.
“The shrines become target of terrorist attacks due to lack of proper security around it. External security is not our responsibility. We are only responsible for security arrangements inside the shrines,” a spokesman for the Auqaf Department told The Express Tribune. He said that it was the police’s duty to ensure proper security arrangements around the shrines and mosques.
The Lower Mall police, however, said that after the attacks on these shrines, security had been beefed up. They said initially the focus was on checking visitors at shrine entrances. For that purpose, they said, a single entrance was kept open while all other gates were sealed.
During the 2010 urs, the langar khana, a huge food distribution arrangement at the Data Darbar, was also closed.
Yasif Qadri, who had been a weekly visitor to the Data Darbar, said that after the attacks, he had cut down his visits to the shrine. He said, “Now, I park my cark a few metres away from the shrine and pray there. Prayers can be heard from thousands of miles away. I do not need to be in the shrine for that.”
Issuing statements
In a handout issued by the City Police on April 8 and then April 23, the chief city police office had issued directions to caretakers of shrines for installing CCTV cameras. The implementation if the direction is still awaited.
When the public relation officer at the CCPO office, Rai Nazar, was asked about the direction, he said ‘it was a suggestion,’ and not a direction.
The Auqaf Department expressed their displeasure over the notice saying that the police were issuing such notices to seek credit for the security arrangements on the premises that were made by the department. “Police is issuing vague statements in a matter which is not in their domain,” the Auqaf Department spokesman said. He said the police should concentrate instead on improving security situation outside the shrines, which he said was their actual domain.
Lack of funds
Another issue faced by the Auqaf Department is the lack of funds. Officials of Auqaf Department told The Tribune that the department was facing an acute decline in their revenue generation. They said that the department lacked the funds to arrange foolproof security arrangements in all the shrines and mosques. Many of the CCTV cameras that have been installed came as donations by some devotees, they said.
So far, the department has turned only 15 shrines into ‘model shrines’ in term of security arrangements. CCTV cameras, walk-through gates, metal detectors, private security guards and teams of Elite Force-trained volunteers have been deployed at these shrines.
Out of these 15, five are in Lahore: (Data Darbar, Bibian Pak Daman, Shah Jamal, Mian Mir and Pir Makki). One hundred more shrines are under consideration for similar arrangements, 70 of these are in Lahore.
Tariq Javed, the Auqaf Department administration director, said that Rs30 million had been spent on the security of the 15 model shrines. He said the 164 private security guards cost the department around Rs1.8 million per month. He said that these costs were difficult for the department to bear. He said those who still visited the shrines were getting discouraged by standing in long queues outside the shrine for security checks through a single entrance.
If the police opened other entrances, the situation could get better, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 3rd, 2011.
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