World Cup fever: No Sea View blockade during key clash

Extra policemen will be deployed if there are outdoor screenings.

KARACHI:

As residents prepare creative excuses to get out of work on Wednesday for the Pakistan and India faceoff in the cricket World Cup semi-final, police officials aren’t too worried about the match outcome and the likely bouts of aerial firing or celebrations, depending on who wins.

Clifton police officers said that there are no plans yet to close the Sea View area, even though it is one of the popular spots for post-match victory celebrations. In recent years, it has been closed to the public for New Year’s Eve.

“If people want to celebrate, we are not going to stop them,” said Clifton SP Tariq Dharejo. “We will have extra police officers out on the road since several places will be screening the match.” Dharejo also downplayed the risk of any damage to public property by angry cricket fans if Pakistan loses the semi-final.

The Darakshan police station generally has a number of officers patrolling Sea View. One official was innocent enough to ask, “Well, the match will be over by 10 pm and will people really leave their homes at that time?”

Officials in charge of VIP security said they did not have any plans for extra deployment. They said that in case there were any special screenings they will assign more policemen, however, they did not anticipate the need to do so.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2011.