High alert ahead of polling day

Jul 24, 2018

LAHORE - The provincial capital was put on high-alert on Monday as police threw a massive security  blanket across the city to maintain peace ahead of the polling day .

Lahore capital city police officer BA Nasir claimed that at least 35,000 police including 25 SPs, 50 DSPs, and more than 200 inspectors would be deployed all over the metropolis on polling day . The police will also be deployed at each polling station in addition to Pakistan Army and Rangers, he said. “All polling stations will be monitored through CCTV cameras and aerial surveillance.”

The city police chief while presiding over a meeting at the Police Lines Qila Gujjar Singh said that the violators of the code of conduct would be sent to jails. “No political leader or worker will be allowed to take law into their hands. Policemen will be bound to display security cards on their uniforms on the polling day ,” a police spokesman quoted the CCPO as saying during the meeting.

DIG (Operations) Shahzad Akbar told the participants of the meeting that the security strategy for the general election was divided into three categories including pre-poll security, on the polling day , and post elections security. He said the police would also implement the post-election strategy more effectively to counter the violence following election results.  The police will also intensify armed patrolling on the polling. The patrolling units including Dolphin Squads, Police Response Units, and Quick Response Force would continue armed patrolling on all major roads throughout the day.

“There are more than 3,673 polling stations with 1,737 polling buildings in Lahore. Each PRU vehicle will patrol around 10 polling buildings while each Dolphins Squad will patrol around five polling buildings,” a police spokesman said on Monday.

According to the Punjab Safe Cities Authority, the authority's technical team had trained at least 2,000 policemen on the efficient usage of the latest 4G-LTE Advance handsets. “After completion of one-week training course, the authority has handed over 1700 modern 4G-LTE Advance handsets to Lahore Police,” a spokesman for the safe city authority said.

“As of now, the number of LTE Advance handsets of Lahore Police has reached 3500, which will help improve security monitoring during the general elections 2018,” he added.

The city police will be able to have a real-time information and footage from all the polling stations of the city through these advanced handsets. Police will be able to contact through Audio, Video calls, Conference Calls and they will be able to send video evidence when and where is required.

The Punjab Safe Safety Authority's advanced LTE handset runs on its indigenous 4G network for the Punjab Police. “These modern handsets are used to link through audio, video calls, conference calls, emergency calls whenever is required,” the spokesman claimed. He said the city police are interconnected through modern communication.

The spokesperson said the Punjab Safe Cities Authority would be available with all its support and guidance for law enforcement agencies on the polling day . Citizens are requested to Dial 15 in case of any emergency and PSCA Teams will be there for assistance, he said.

(The Nation)

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