ISLAMABAD, 11 January 2008 — The Punjab government yesterday sought the deployment of the army in the province’s 22 “sensitive” districts to ensure peace during the month of Muharram and the general elections slated for Feb. 18.
Punjab Gov. Khalid Maqbul also appealed to political and religious parties to refrain from provocative utterances in their speeches.
An alert was sounded in Peshawar after yesterday’s suicide attack in Lahore and additional police contingents were deployed in the city. Peshawar police officer Tanveerul Haq Sapra appealed to the people to cooperate with security officials during Muharram which has been marked by violent clashes between Sunnis and Shiites in the past.
The Interior Ministry said that security for Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Aitezaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, have been beefed up after intelligence reports indicated terrorist threat to their lives. After the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a gun-and-bomb attack, the government last month also spoke of threat to the life of Maulana Fazl ur-Rehman, chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.
