High alert on 9th Muharram: Major terror plots foiled amid security clampdown

Measures taken for the safety of processionists across the country.

ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI:

Security forces took extraordinary measures to quell terror threats on Thursday, the eve of Youm-e-Ashura, while ensuring the safety of tens of thousands of mourners in major cities and towns where Muharram processions were taken out.

The clampdown – in line with the government’s earlier promise of ‘foolproof’ security – was, for the most part, thorough and unrelenting. Law enforcement agencies carried out inspections of routes as well as body searches of processionists. Gates were also installed at the street entrances through which mourners passed in Islamabad, Lahore, Sukkur, Hyderabad and other cities.

“No one will take part in the [Ashura] processions without being checked first,” said Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.

In one such search operation in Islamabad on Wednesday night, police intercepted a would-be bomber and alleged plotter of an attack on an Imambargah. The two suspects, identified as Muhammad Saeed Abdullah and Matiullah, had planned to attack an Imambargah in Sector G-6 on the 9th of Muharram. Suicide vests were also recovered during the raid.

Another sectarian-motivated attack was foiled in Kot Addu, where police officials discovered explosives planted on the route of a procession. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced a Rs50,000 prize for the officials who defused the bomb. Lahore’s largest procession, which started at Pando Street at 10am after the route was cleared by a bomb disposal squad’s sniffer dogs, was largely peaceful.

In Quetta, paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers seized a large cache of arms and explosives from the border town of Chaman. The explosives, according to FC personnel, were going to be used in a bombing on a Muharram procession.

Hundreds of home-made bombs, improvised explosive devices, suicide jackets and detonators were recovered along with religious literature. Two “terrorists” were arrested during the raid. Investigators said they expect an important disclosure to be made during interrogations. Colonel Maqbool said the FC acted on a tip-off and foiled the terror bid by conducting a timely raid. “It could have been disastrous otherwise,” he said.

Like other major cities, Peshawar was in the grip of a lockdown with older parts of the city virtually sealed off by police. Along with FC troops, reserve police and student volunteers also assisted police personnel.

In Haripur, markets and shops were closed on Wednesday and all entry and exit points along with link roads leading to the main bazaar were closed off as it was the route for the main procession.

Security forces in Kurram Agency claimed to have thwarted a terrorist bid and recovered a cache of weapons.

Extraordinary security for Karachi

Police claimed to have thwarted a major terrorist attack in Karachi by killing six alleged terrorists of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) on Thursday morning.

LeJ’s Karachi chapter chief from the Asif Chohtu group, Gul Hasan, and two alleged suicide bombers, Muhammad Arif and Naveed Baloch, were among the suspects killed in an encounter with officials from the Anti-Extremist Cell (AEC) of the Crime Investigation Department.

Up to 25,000 police and security personnel were deployed for the protection of processionists passing from Nishtar Park to Kharadar. One of the measures taken in the wake of Wednesday night’s attacks on two Imambargahs was that link roads connecting to M A Jinnah Road were blocked off by containers.

At the same time, snipers were positioned on rooftops along the procession routes. Apart from aerial surveillance, hundreds of CCTV cameras were also installed to monitor activities along procession routes. Rangers director general, Major General Rizwan Akhtar, IGP Sindh Shahid Nadeem Baloch and Additional IG Karachi Shahid Hayat expressed their satisfaction with security arrangements when they visited the site of a large procession.

In Hyderabad, up to 3,000 policemen and 700 Rangers personnel will be deployed for Ashura. Some 50 CCTV cameras have also been installed.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2013.