‘City of Shrines’ feeling insecure

MULTAN: Following the blasts on Data Darbar in Lahore, most shrines and mosques in Multan have beefed up security.

The Shah Rukn-i-Aalam shrine, Shah Shams Tabrez shrine and Hazrat Bahauddin Zakariya shrines and mazars have been provided with extra police contingents and security check posts.

Most major routes leading to the shrines now have police check posts and police officials are stopping all commuters along the roads. Constable Iqbal Virk said that the Lahore blasts had created panic in Multan.

“Multan is often regarded as the city of shrines and following the Data Darbar blasts there is a tangible fear among people in Multan that local shrines could be next on the terrorist list,” he said, adding that police contingents had been deployed throughout the city since yesterday.

Police officials have been given point detectors and have placed road blocks along most routes leading to major shrines.

“We have been ordered to check every suspicious vehicle,” superintendent police (SP) Naseer Bajwa said, adding that police officials were also conducting full body search for people visiting the shrines.

The district government has ordered that walk-through gates be installed at all major shrines and police units be deployed outside and in the shrines.

Over 600 mosques and shrines in the city have been classified as A, B and C degree security threats.

“One police officer and two constables will be deployed inside each A- degree site and police will patrol outside the other sites,” Virk said.

Locals in the city have expressed concern over the situation. “One never thought that the terrorists could also go after sufi shrines because that means they hold nothing sacred,” Nabeela Shaheen, a regular visitor at the Shah Rukn-i-Alam shrine said. “It is as if they no longer want us to even follow our faith because they are bombing religious sites,” said Azfar Kaleem, a visitor at the Hazrat Bahauddin Zakarya shrine.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2010.