Fearing clashes: Over 150 ‘troublemakers’ held amid heightened tension

Pindi admin bars clerics from holding conference on chehlum procession route.

RAWALPINDI:

To avoid sectarian clashes during the chehlum procession on Tuesday, the Rawalpindi police launched a crackdown in different areas of the city and rounded up around 150 “potential troublemakers”.

The Rawalpindi administration also barred activists and clerics from Ahle-Sunnat-wal-Jamaat (ASWJ) and other religious parties from holding a two-day conference outside Madrassa Taleemul Quran in Raja Bazaar. The local administration also sealed all roads leading to Raja Bazaar by placing containers and barbed wire at different places.

Sources said that the police would continue to check different localities to nab wanted clerics who have gone into hiding following the crackdown.

The sources said air surveillance of the chehlum routes would also be carried out besides putting foolproof security arrangements in place on the ground.

The local administration on Monday placed containers at various places including Raja Bazaar, Fawara Chowk, Kohati Bazaar, Asghar Mall Chowk and City Saddar Road. The local administration said the chehlum procession will be taken out from Imambargah Ashiq Hussain Teli Mohalla at 11:00am and will pass through its traditional route before culminating at Imambargah Qadeemi at 11:00pm. Clerics from Madrassa Taleemul Quran and the ASWJ had announced that they would not allow the chehlum procession to pass in front of the seminary by holding the two-day conference on the main road.

“We will not allow anyone to hold a conference on the chehlum procession route. We will arrest all those who attempt to create trouble on the procession route,” asserted an official.

Meanwhile, dozens of clerics from ASWJ and other religious parties staged a protest demonstration on Murree Road near Faizabad against the local administration for barring them from holding the conference and allowing the chehlum procession.

The Islamabad police arrested around 30 protesters from Faizabad and handed them over to the Rawalpindi police. The Rawalpindi police also arrested dozens of protesters from Banni, Liaqat Chowk, PAF Chowk, Liaqat Bagh Chowk and other parts of the city.  The local administration and the police said pillion riding would not be allowed on Tuesday, while all private and government educational institutions would remain closed.

A Rawalpindi police spokesman said around 7,000 police personnel backed by Rangers would perform security duties on chehlum procession routes.

Apart from 7,000 regular police personnel, 10 companies of Rangers and Pakistan Army have been deployed.

On Monday night, army soldiers and Rangers kept patrolling various parts of the city including Raja Bazaar, Bohr Bazaar, Purana Qila and Teli Mohalla.

There would be strict monitoring of all procession routes with the help of 70 CCTV cameras, the spokesman said. He said that no one would be allowed on rooftops of commercial and residential buildings along the procession routes.

Meanwhile, the local administration has declared a state of emergency in the city’s public hospitals.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2013.