ISLAMABAD: Pakistan stepped up security across the country and even placed the city of Hangu in the Frontier province under curfew yesterday as minority Shiites began annual Ashura processions, two days after a suicide bomber killed seven people in a nearby town, officials said.
The authorities clamped curfew in Hangu district of Frontier province to prevent sectarian disharmony during Shiite rites in the month of Muharram. Hangu is Shia-dominated region located near Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Hangu is close to the tribal regions where Taleban militants have strongholds. It also has witnessed sectarian attacks in the past.
This town has witnessed several fierce sectarian riots in the past.
Police commandos would be deployed along routes used by Shiite marchers in North-West Frontier Province on the Afghan border, which has been wracked by violence including suicide bombings by Taleban militants.
Curfew has been announced for an indefinite period, locals said, adding that the majority of the population has left for safer places for fear of sectarian violence in the district.
Security has also been tightened in Peshawar. And 135 platoons of security personnel have been deployed in the city to prevent any untoward incident during Ashura. Sensitive areas in the city including the cantonment and Hayatabad areas have also been sealed.
Sectarian violence has flared in the past in Hangu between the Shiites, who beat their chests and whip their backs with flails in religious fervor, and the country’s majority Sunnis, who oppose the public display of grief.
