Karachi: 4000 Shia volunteers for Ashura & 9th Muharram Procession..

More than 4,000 volunteers and scouts have been deployed by the Shia community of the city to provide security to the central congregation and processions on 9th (Tasua) and 10th (Ashura) Muharram as a self-security measure in the wake of the prevailing law and order situation in the country.
Keeping in view the ongoing sectarian tensions and terrorism, and recent incident of Numaish Chowrangi, the organisers of majalis and processions have chalked out strategies to thwart any untoward incident on their own.
The measures taken by law enforcement agencies include deployment of 16,000 policemen on the main procession route with personnel from Special Branch, Sindh Rangers, allied force commandos and the bomb disposal squad to handle any untoward incident.
However, the Scouts groups and volunteers have finalized their plan to deploy more than 4000 scouts and volunteers for the security of Central procession and congregation of Muharram to support the law enforcement agencies.
Scouts Rabita Council Media coordinator, council of fifteen shia scouts group, Sardar Hussain told The Nation that 22 scouts groups will be deployed their volunteers in the Central processions of Muharram saying that 15 scouts groups belongs from the Shia Community.
However, other six scout groups of AhleSunnat scouts (Young Boys Scouts, Young Generation Scouts, Pak friends Scouts, Pak ghazi scouts, Barkati Scouts, and Pak Night Scouts, and one Christian (Pakistan Christian scouts) groups will also deploy their scouts for the security of the central procession of Muharram.
He said that scouts group is serving the people without any discrimination and recalled that the Ashura bomb blast and Numaish Chowrangi incidents, where the scouts were scarified their lives for the participants of Azadari procession.
He said that failure of the government arrangements on 1st Muharram incident at Numaish Chowrangi have exposed the tall claims of the government saying that the scouts group and volunteers will assist the LEA’s in the security arrangements of central procession.
Sardar Hussain said that the Shia community organizations and groups will also deploy their volunteers for the security of the central procession and congregation to protect the participants of the procession from any kind of terrorism.
Jaffaria Alliance Pakistan (JAP), a coalition of Karachi-based Shia organization has been established “Central Azadari Cell” at Nishtar Park, the central of Azadari and central processions and gathering of Muharram are being held their. Moreover, the JAP has installed more than 24 CCTV cameras at Nishtar Park and along the route of Ashura processions.
JAP secretary Salman Mujtaba said that we affectively used the monitoring cell of Nishtar Park to vigilance the activities of Muharram held at Nishtar Park and solider Bazar area saying that more than six central programs (Majalis) of Karachi are held around the Nishtar Park area.
He expressed deep concern over the security arrangements made by the Government and law enforcement agencies saying that government has not adopted the concrete security measures for Muharram Majalis and processions.
We have informed the IG Sindh about over concerns regarding the security situation” he said and added that we have finalized our strategy to deploy scouts and volunteers to thwart any attempt of terrorism.
According to official statistics, around 140 mosques and 2,000 Imambargahs are situated throughout the city while thousands of gatherings and processions are taken out from various parts of the metropolis every year in Muharram.

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