Pindi admin reviews Muharram security
File photo of mourners as they carry flags during a religious procession in Islamabad. PHOTO: AFP
The district administration has finalised all arrangements for peaceful holding of the Muharram congregations in the district.
Deupty Commissioner Anwarul Haq on Sunday said that the district administration and the police with the help of organisers of the Ashura processions would ensure that all standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curbing the virus are followed.
He said the administration has assured the orgnisers of majalis and processions of providing foolproof security.
Haq directed police officials to adopt advance and pre-emptive steps to ensure arrangements for extending protection and other facilities to the azadari processions and majalis.
He said this while addressing a meeting to review the arrangements for Muharram. The DC said that all traditional licence-holders processions and other rallies would allow during the Muharram but organisers were bound to inform the district administration before taking out processions.
He said that unfair use of loudspeakers was strictly banned and violators would be dealt strictly. “No one would be allowed to carry the weapons,” he added. The DC appealed to the ulema, religious notables and citizens to extend cooperation for maintaining religious harmony, peace and tranquility during the holy month.
Extensive measures
This year, as many as 1,766 congregations would be organised and 350 mourning processions would be taken out in different parts of the district from Muharram first to Safar 20, the first two consecutive months of the Islamic Calendar respectively.
In Rawalpindi city, some 35 congregations will be held daily from the beginning of the new Islamic year to Muharram sixth. After this, a series of processions would start from the next day.
The administration will not allow processions without licenses and permits. Some six processions would be taken out on Muharram 10, Youme Ashura that would commence from different spots at different timings.
Further, Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner (DC) Anwarul Haq urged the Shia clergy during a meeting to not invite the speakers who have been banned.
He assured of providing foolproof security to all processions and congregations.
The deputy commissioner said standing in balconies and on rooftops along the routes of the Muharram processions has been banned.
The overall security condition would be monitored through drone cameras, he added. The predetermined routes would be sealed with barbed wires and containers.
DC said that the mourners would not be allowed to carry lighters, arms, or sharp tools with them.
The delegation assured the official that they would abide by the instructions by the administration and timely culmination of the processions would be ensured too.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 17th, 2020.