Raja Bazaar traders demand security during Muharram

Remind govt of 2013 riots that left two shopping malls gutted

RAWALPINDI: Traders have demanded security for fall along businesses that come on the route of mourning processions.

Recalling the “disaster suffered by local traders of Madina Market and Al-Umer Plaza in 2013” on Ashura day in Raja Bazar, President Markazi Anjuman Tajran Sharjeel Mir Tuesday urged the government to take stringent security measures for ensuring peace and security in the city during Muharram.

Mir said the city administration must take extraordinary measures by intensifying snap checking and patrolling, effective monitoring of city’s entry and exit points, deployment of additional police force and Rangers, installation and repair of CCTV cameras and other security steps so that all processions and other religious activities conclude peacefully.

“We cannot afford any further loss of life and property as it takes years to recover and restore businesses which were put on fire by the angry mob on November 15, in 2013,” he said.

He called for taking the business community into confidence regarding the security plan devised for various routes of Muharram processions so that shopkeepers and traders could adhere to the security plan and schedule their business activities accordingly.

When contacted, the City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Abassi assured that fool proof security arrangements were being made to provide security to mourners as well as traders to feel a sense of security.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2017.