Muharram 9 procession: Cellular services shut down in Karachi, 8 other districts

Apart from police deployment, surveillance was also conducted by over 1,200 CCTV cameras

KARACHI/HYDERABAD:

Many residents of Karachi and eight other districts in Sindh woke up to no cellular signals on Friday when the Sindh government suspended services to ensure a peaceful Muharram 9 procession.

Though authorities had earlier decided that cellular phone services will only be suspended on Ashura (Muharram 10) but it was abruptly suspended in the metropolis on Friday morning.

The central procession of Muharram 9, carried out to mark the tragedy of Karbala, culminated peacefully in the city. However, a blast on a procession route in Jacobabad claimed over 20 lives.

Strict security measures were taken by law enforcement agencies as over 18,000 policemen and Rangers were deployed across Karachi to avoid any untoward incident. Ten thousand of the 18,000 law enforcers were only deployed to protect the main procession and majalis venues. The same security arrangements will also be taken for the Ashura procession by law enforcers.

In addition to the deployment of law enforcers, round-the-clock surveillance was also conducted by over 1,200 closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) at a control room in Civic Centre. Shops in Saddar and those along the procession routes were already closed and sealed. The roads linking the procession routes and majalis venue were closed by placing containers. Police commandos and snipers were also deployed on the rooftops of the buildings to monitor the mourning procession. Mourners were allowed to enter the processions only after going through body checks and walk-through gates. Aerial surveillance by the Rangers was also performed during the procession.

Besides law enforcers, nearly 5,000 scouts from various scouts organisations, rescue services and city administration also made necessary arrangements to facilitate the participants of the mourning procession.

A majlis was held at Nishter Park from where the main mourning procession started before culminating at the Hussainian Iranian Imambargah in Kharadar by passing through designated routes — Mehfil-e-Shah Khurasan, Saddar, Preedy Street and MA Jinnah Road. The participants offered Zuhrain prayers at Imambargah Ali Raza on MA Jinnah Road, which was organised by Imamia Student Organisation.

A ban had already been imposed on pillion riding in various districts of Sindh, including Karachi, from Muharram 8 till Muharram 10 by the provincial government. Sindh Home Minister Sohail Siyal, Rangers director-general Major-General Bilal Akbar, Sindh IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali and Additional Karachi IG Mushtaq Mahar also visited the central procession to review the security arrangements of the main procession. An emergency had already been declared at all government-run hospitals in case any untoward incident occurred.

400 processions in Hyderabad today

Around 400 mourning processions will be organised in Hyderabad today. In the evening, 77 majalis will also be organised. The central procession, organised by Anjuman-i-Imam Hyderi, will start from Karbala Dadan Shah in the morning and will culminate at Qadam Gah Maula Ali at around 5pm. It will pass through the Dadan Shah and Station Road in the downtown City taluka. The streets along this one-kilometre route have been sealed with barbed wires. Only one entry point has been kept at Dadan Shah and one exit point at Qadam Gah. About 2,000 policemen and 300 Rangers, in addition to the volunteers, will perform security duty. A majority of them will be deployed along the route of the main procession.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2015.