Stringent security helps Ashura pass peacefully

Rawalpindi : Like 10th of Muharram, ‘Tazia’, ‘alam’ and ‘zuljinah’ processions were taken out Imambargah Shah Piyara near Chur on Friday.

All roads towards Imambargah Shah Piyara were blocked for all kinds of traffic. Around 2,000 security officials performed duty around Imambargah Shah Piyara to avoid any untoward incident on the occasion.

The Rawalpindi police took stringent security measures during the mourning procession on the occasion of Ashura-e-Moharram observed on Thursday, to avoid any unpleasant incident and counter threats hurled from the militant groups with heavy strength of over 8,000 personnel of law enforcement agencies including, police commandos, anti-terrorist squad, and Rangers in the field, while military troops were on backend call.

About 1,200 volunteers assisted the civil administration in keeping peace in the city.

Heavy forces were deployed at most risky places marked as sensitive points of metropolis and garrison areas, the officials responsible for maintaining security during the occasion, said when contacted by ‘The News’.

Walkthrough gates were installed at every entry point and scouts helped the police in body searching.

“22 processions were marked as risky and most sensitive among 144 total processions took out from various areas of the city, 26 were categorized as sensitive and 96 were marked as less risky,” one of the officers among the planners groups said and added that over 200 shooters were deployed on the rooftop of the building along the routes of the mourning processions. No individual was allowed to enter into the procession without body search.

Around 65 ‘zuljinah’ processions were taken out in the city that passed through their traditional routes and culminated at Qadeemi Imambargah peacefully. The main processions were taken out from Imambargah Ashiq Hussain and Imambargah Colonel Maqbool which passed through their traditional routes including Fawara Chowk, Banni Chowk, Bagh Sardaran, Jamia Masjid Road, Purana Qila, Sarafa Bazaar, Raja Bazaar, China Market, and finally culminated at the Qadeemi Imambargah. All roads on routes of the mourning processions remained closed for traffic.

The mourning processions from Dhoke Syedan, Tench Bhatta, Dhoke Mangtal, Dhoke Ratta, Kamalabad, Groti, Gora Syedan, Jhangi Syedan, Shah Chan Chiragh, Misrial, Shah Piyara near Chur, Lalkurti, Adiala Road, Sadiqabad, Muslim Town, Girja Road, Dhoke Moori, Rawat, Sihala, Khanna Dak, Talhi Mohri, Sher Zaman Colony, Golra Sharif, Gorakhpur, Rajwal, Humak, Chaklala Scheme-III, Shah Khalid Colony, Raheemabad, Nadeem Colony, Dhamial Camp, Chakri, Kalyaal, Dhaman Syedan, and many other localities joined the main processions at Colonel Maqbool Imambargah and Ashiq Hussain Imambargah.

The participants later marched towards the Qadeemi Imambargah where they reached at around 8 p.m. where ‘Sham-e-Ghareeban’ began and continued till late at night.

Religious scholars delivered detailed sermons at Imambargahs before the start of mourning processions where homage was paid to Hazrat Imam Hussain (AS) and his companions who fought valiantly in Karbala and laid down their lives for the supremacy of Islam.

Thousands of participants performed ‘zanjir zani’ along routes of mourning processions and ‘nohas’ and ‘marsias’ were recited on the occasion.

Several devotees had set up ‘sabeels’ and ‘langars’ on the route of these processions throughout the city. The devotees arranged water and milk ‘sabeels’ but some of them provided tea and ‘qehwa’. Several ambulances of welfare organisations and doctors remained present during mourning processions to provide medical treatment to the mourners.

Traffic management appropriately planned to keep the traffic flow by diverting the traffic to the artery roads adjacent to the routes of the main processions. More than 800 traffic officials performed their duties to manage the traffic flow during the processions.