Security situation: Somebody’s watching you...

Security check posts have been installed throughout the city, but does anyone feel safer?

LAHORE: Over the past couple of years, the most visible change in this city has been the dozens of security check posts cropping up. The guards posted in front of every landmark on The Mall and the maze of barricades and traffic cones near every bridge are the most tangible form of how our day-to-day lives have been affected by terrorism.

So do they make people feel safer? Well, yes and no. According to both ordinary citizens and security guards, the barriers are not meant to catch terrorists so much as provide reassurance.

“These posts only provide an illusion of safety. It’s not like they have prevented any attacks or caught any terrorists. But they provide the consolation that there is someone on guard at all times,” said Cantonment resident Sohail Bajwa.

The irony is that many Lahoris now try to avoid major security check posts to save on time. “Unless you live in an area where you have to cross a check post daily, it is best to change routes, especially if you are a twenty-something male like me. I get stopped almost daily near the Cantt check post. Two of the guards know me by name,” said Saad Warraich, a LUMS student.

“It is harder work than one realises,” says Cantonment security guard Asad. “We let hundreds of cars pass by every day and we stop at least a quarter. We need to maintain a ratio but deciding who to let pass and who to check is mostly just pure instinct.”

Security guard Jameel, at the check post near Sherpao Bridge, says there is a certain profile that the guards are looking out for. “We tend to stop and question young men, especially college students, and pretty much all men in turbans.”

All the guards state that they have strict directions not to stop women who are driving alone. “We occasionally stop families at the check point but that is rare. Mostly it ends up being students or Jamaatis,” he adds.

The guards say that profiling is an exhausting enterprise. “It is like looking at every single person through a lens of suspicion. While it is our jobs to stop people for having tinted windows or for driving rashly, it is new to start looking at everyone as a potential suicide bomber,” says Abdullah, an army guard posted near the Polo Ground in Cantt.

“Suddenly over the past two years, everyone has become a suspect and everyone is capable of wreaking havoc,” he says. “I have been doing this for years and it was mostly ceremonial. I met people who would come into the park for jogging and, I hate to admit it, but four years ago my gun wasn’t even loaded. We were so complacent.” The guards feel the basic purpose of their job is to make people feel safer, even if it is just an illusion. “We don’t really ever expect to catch a terrorist, but the job needs to be done and we stand here all day doing it,” Asad says. “Most people are very good about it. They realise that it is now part of their lives and that it is a necessity. Mostly I think they are just thankful that someone out there is keeping any eye out.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2010.