Daily Times

LAHORE: Following the recent suicide attack at Dargah Fatehpur Sharif in Jhal Magsi, Balochistan, where at least 18 innocent people, including five policemen, lost their lives and several received injuries, the city police beefed up security arrangements across the provincial capital Thursday evening.

Source said that after the recent suicide attack in Jhal Magsi, the authorities have given strict directions to police and other law enforcing departments concerned to complete the lists of all shrines, mosques and other religious places in the provincial capital and secure them on a top priority basis.

They further said that there were many shrine-cum-mosques in the city, like Data Darbar, Pir Makki, Mian Mir, Bi Bi Pak Daman, Shah Jamal, Baba Shah Inayat Qadiri Shatari, Madho Lal Hussain and Shah Abul-Mali.

The sources said that hundreds of thousands of people visit and offer prayers in these mosques located near the shrines every day, but most of these areas have not been provided security cover.

A police officer requesting not to be named said that upon receiving the directions from seniors, all the police officers of the city have strictly conveyed the orders to all station house officers (SHOs) to ensure the implementation of the security plan at important religious places, markets, bazaars and other public places within their respective areas.

Many SHOs serving in different police stations across the city, requesting anonymity, told Daily Times that they had already met local influential people and notables of their areas and requested them to also keep an eye on suspicious people, besides monitoring mosques and other places of worship. They said that the police security would be beefed up in their areas, especially at markets, religious places, bazaars and important government installations. They said that the administrations of all A Category mosques and shrine-cum-mosques had been directed to maintain lights inside and outside of mosques as well as in the adjoining streets. They were further directed to report to police in case of any inconvenience in the maintenance of lights.

They said that all the administrations of mosques, especially shrine-cum-mosques, must set up walkthrough gates, metal detectors, CCTV cameras and four to five private security guards. Moreover, they said the administrations had also been directed to display signboards inscribed with precautionary measures for visitors.

The superintendents of the six divisions of the city said that the Lahore police were fully alert and keeping a vigilant eye on anti-state elements. They said that special instructions had been given to all officers and officials to ensure 24-hour patrolling in all the areas, adding that SHOs themselves were leading the patrolling in their jurisdictions.

Published in Daily Times, October 6^th 2017.