In addition to the imposition of Section 144, which bans a gathering of over four people at one place for rallies and protests, pillion riding has also been banned in Karachi, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan and Quetta.
Cellular services remain active in Lahore and Karachi even after the Sindh government had announced on July 18 that mobile-phone services would be suspended from 4 am till 11 pm today and a similar announcement was made for parts of Lahore.
The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) is checking the procession route in Karachi before letting people through. CCTV cameras are also in place and sharp-shooters have taken position on tall buildings along the route. The district government has also set up a control room for 24 hours and routes from Gurumandir to Tower have been sealed using containers.
Here is a map of the route of Youm-a-Ali processions in Karachi:
In Lahore, 5,000 police officers in uniform as well as police commandos in civil clothes have been deployed.
Police are searching people passing through the procession route in Lahore three times and 100 CCTV cameras have also been installed in the city.
Over 2,000 police officers have been deployed in Multan, including the Multan regional police officer (RPO) and district coordination officer.
Processions have already started in Karachi and Lahore, while a small procession has commenced in Multan where another larger one was due to begin at 1pm today.
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@ali: Just when i thought how come no conspiracy about this procession i spotted your comment !
Here's wishing all our Muslim brethren a happy ramzaan . .
@Hari Om: it i not a muslim religious occassion it is an Iranian regimes stunt to gain influence over countries such as Pakistan where there is an extremist shia population, from Saudi to US no where such paralysis of major cities will be allowed, even in Iran no shia procession ever blocks tehran streets
For a country claimed to have been founded to provide a safe haven for the Muslims of the Indian Sub-Continent, it is simply staggering that a Muslim Religious occasion like Youm-e-Ali requires measures like a ban on pillion riding and suspension of cell phone services in order to prevent Muslim from slaughtering Muslim over nothing more than petty differences in interpretation of the Muslim religion. Indeed drawing from Pakistani history these would be just the beginning of security measures which would go on to include widespread recourse to measures such as imposing curfew and deploying the Army. All this even while in the supposed “not-safe haven” area of the Indian Sub-Continent, namely “Hindu India”, the Muslim festival of Youm-e-Ali is not evoking sufficient security concerns for widespread recourse to measures such as imposing curfew, deploying the Army, shutting down the cell phone network, banning pillion riding and other draconian measures (that will be) taken in Pakistan. Next I wait to hear the oft repeated statement that there is no such thing as intra Muslim sectarian killings in Pakistan as it is inconceivable that a Muslim can kill another Muslim as Islam is the Religion of Peace where even killing one person is considered as killing all humanity thus making these security measures, in Pakistani minds, precautions to foil a RAW / Mossad / CIA perpetrated act by India / Israel / USA to malign Islam and Pakistan.