Pakistan scheduled to meet England in Pindi
Zubair Qureshi
More than 1,200 police personnel would be deployed on the security of the English Cricket Team while the senior police officers led by the City Police Officer (CPO) would monitor all affairs pertaining to the team security and to ensure safety and wellbeing of the guests.
City Police Officer (CPO) Security Division, Muhammad Hassan Raza Khan on Thursday chaired a meeting to review security arrangements for the upcoming visit of the England cricket team.
In the meeting, overall security arrangements were discussed and reviewed. The meeting was also attended by the SSP (Security), Pakistan Army, Pakistan Rangers and officials of other law enforcement agencies.
It was decided in the meeting that the Islamabad Capital Police would maintain complete coordination with Rawalpindi police to ensure foolproof security while the routes of the team would be monitored through digital technology and drone cameras.
CPO Security Division Islamabad emphasized that Islamabad Capital Police would take all possible measures for the security of the cricket team to maintain national dignity.
He ordered all the officers to conduct close liaison with different department officials. He said that the special branch will share important information with concerned higher authorities.
CPO Security strictly directed all officers to deploy alert personnel at the staying venue and they should be briefed about the importance of the duty before deployment.
The first test between Pakistan and England is scheduled from Dec 1 to Dec 5 in Rawalpindi’s Cricket Stadium. However former Prime Minister and Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran khan has announced to bring a big public rally and long march on November 26. In view of Imran Khan’s announcement and plan to march on Islamabad the situation in the twin cities has become quite intense and the security forces have put a large number of containers to prevent the movement of the marchers and in order to stop them from entering the federal capital.
The Rawalpindi Police too have taken a number of security measures that include restricting public movement, traffic on roads and even possible closure of government and private schools and offices in the coming weeks.
Under such a situation, clouds of uncertainty have started hanging over the possibility of the match between England and Pakistan, said a senior official requesting not to be named.
On the other hand the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is determined to go ahead with the scheduled matches and expressed hope by the time of the match, the situation would return to normalcy.
