Punjab to use special software for ensuring Muharram security

Punjab Information Technology Board to use Google as part of their software technology kit to monitor processions.

LAHORE: While Karachi and Quetta saw the sun of first Muharram set without any significant incident of violence, in part due to the extreme security measures adopted by the Federal government, however, the Punjab government has decided to opt for a different, more high-tech approach to ensuring security during the Islamic month.

A press release by the DGPR announced that the Punjab government will be employing the use of CCTV cameras in addition to a specially designed software which will be implemented by the Punjab Information Technology Board as part of a comprehensive security plan to keep a vigilant eye on the movement of mourning processions during Muharram.

The Punjab Information Technology Board in a briefing said that the software would operate side by side conventional security techniques. In all the nine divisions of the province and especially the provincial metropolis, security cameras would be installed along routes of mourning processions which will be connected to a central control room through the internet. This way, movements of all the mourning processions will be monitored in a central control room. The movements of these processions could also be controlled if such a need were to arise.

Giving details of the technological systems, the release said ‘Ggoogle’ will be used in facilitating the control room to track and monitor the position and presence of mourning processions.

Keeping in view the security threats, the state-of-the-art security plan would ensure that no impediment whatsoever takes place along procession routes and plans of saboteurs are foiled.

In addition to the use of technology, law enforcement personnel will also have available the use of sniffer dogs.