LAHORE - Thursday’s gun attack on the PTI
chief Imran Khan and other party leaders at Wazirabad has laid
bare the inadequate security arrangements taken by the Punjab
police for the much-hyped mega
political event which had visible
security threats from the day it
started from Lahore last week.
The presence of armed men
around Imran Khan’s container
carrying PTI’s top leadership
has also raised questions about
the professional competence of
the Punjab police which had deployed over 2100 policemen to
provide security to the participants of the protest march.
Even more worrisome is the
fact that police did not take adequate security measures despite having prior information
of a possible murder attack on
the PTI chairman and other
party leaders. A day before, a
local PTI leader Ahmad Hussain Chatha had informed the
concerned DPO and the district
administration about an intelligence information leading to
an anticipated assassination
attempt on the life of PTI chairman. Senior PTI leader Ejaz Ahmad Ch had shared this information with Mr Chatha though the
latter had also claimed to have
got such information in a conversation with the former. Ejaz Ch
had confirmed to The Nation on
Thursday that this information
sharing took place between him
and Hussain Chatha on Wednesday night at around 10 pm.
Also, DPO Gujranwala had received a threat letter on November 1 from intelligence agencies
about a possible attack on the
long march. But despite having
all this information, the police
did not install bullet proof sheets
in front of the container, leaving
the entire PTI leadership fully
exposed to any attack from the
crowd from all directions.
It was against this backdrop
that PTI leaders in a meeting on
Friday expressed dissatisfaction over the security arrangements taken by the Punjab police for the safety of the party
leaders. They demanded removal of the Punjab IGP Faisal
Shahkar holding him responsible for the poor security cover
provided to the leaders.
Meanwhile, DPO Gujrat Syed
Ghazanfar Shah Friday said that
it was not possible for the police
to physically check every person
taking part in the long march.
Talking to the media, he said
that walk-through gates could
not be installed to check the
people in a moving procession
of people like the long march. He
said people would move freely
in a protest march like this and
it was not humanly possible to
keep an eye on all of them.