LAHORE: Security has been heightened in the wake of PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif’s arrival in the city where thousands of his supporters have gathered to welcome their leader.
The caravans from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Jhelum, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad, DI Khan, Muzafarabad, Gilgit and other parts of the country reached Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan where former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was to address a public meeting to mark his return to the country after four years of self-exile.
Police sources said that 10,000 security personnel had been deployed from airport to Minar-e-Pakistan to provide security to the caravan of Nawaz Sharif. Similarly, 3,000 traffic wardens were also deployed to keep the traffic flow smooth and divert vehicular traffic to alternative routes.
Meanwhile, caravans from across the country are continuously arriving in Lahore and the administration had made arrangements for parking of vehicles at Bund Road, Larri Adda and near Ring Road. Monitoring of caravans and venue of PML-N rally (Minar-e-Pakistan) was carried out through CCTV cameras.
According to police, vigilant security personnel will be guarding the route from Lahore airport to Minar-e-Pakistan. The personnel of the law enforcement agencies in plainclothes were deployed on entry and exit points of the city besides patrolling on main routes of the city had also been increased.
Sources said monitoring of the whole rally was carried out through Safe City Authority’s CCTV cameras and local cameras installed for the purpose.
Search operations were conducted by the security agencies around venue of the rally. To oversee the security arrangements, CTO Lahore and Lahore DIG operations had a tour of the Minar-e-Pakistan late on Friday night.
Meanwhile, thousands of PML-N workers had reached Lahore to welcome their leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who returned to Pakistan after four years.
A special train from Sukkur reached Lahore in afternoon while another train from KPK ‘Umeed-e-Pakistan’ was brought hundreds of party to Lahore.
A special train from Sukkur will reach Lahore today afternoon while another train from KPK ‘Umeed-e-Pakistan’ is also on its way to Lahore.
A large number of PML-N workers were seen at Minar-e-Pakistan last night when Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Hamza Shehbaz visited the venue to review the arrangements. They were dancing to the tunes of drumbeats in jubilation.
Meanwhile, the PML-N had arranged more than 40,000 chairs at Minar-e-Pakistan for the public address of Nawaz Sharif.
Heavy lights, music and large screens had also been arranged to telecast the address of the former PM “who delivered the most important speech of his political career.”
