Mobile services to remain suspended in several areas on Thursday

Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Multan along with other cities to face suspension from 8am to 10pm.

LAHORE: Mobile services will remain suspended in several areas of the country from 8am to 10pm on Thursday on account of Hazrat Imam Hussain’s (RA) Chehlum, reported Express News on Wednesday.

The areas where services will be suspended include Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, DI Khan and Bannu.

In Punjab, 18 districts will face the service suspension, nine districts in Balochistan and six each in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Earlier during the day, the Lahore police had submitted an application to the Punjab government for suspending cellular services in the city.

The application called for suspending services in Lahore from 9am to 12am tomorrow (Thursday) in order to avert any acts of terrorism on the Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA).

Shias processions take place every year on the 40^th day of Imam Hussain’s (RA) death and have previously been targeted by terrorists.

In November on Ashura, at least five people were killed and eleven sustained injuries in twin blasts that occurred in Karachi’s Orangi Town – both blasts targeted imambargahs.

On the same day, a bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan killed at least five people and injured over a hundred during a procession.