ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: A buttoned-up Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gave on Wednesday a closed-door dressing-down to the participants of a meeting on security for failing to control sectarian violence in Rawalpindi on the day of Ashura.

Even before chiefs of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) could give their sides of the story, the prime minister told them in plain words that since it was a failure on everybody’s part, nobody should get into the blame game, a participant of the meeting told Dawn.

Mr Sharif more than once warned, particularly police, that he wanted an even-handed investigation into the incident to take real culprits to task regardless of the sect they belonged to.

The focus of the meeting, according to the participant, was not to determine which side — Shia or Sunni — was the first to provoke the other but to underline why police failed to act despite knowing the sensitivity of the occasion.

Summing up the findings of the investigation made so far into the killing of 11 students of Madressah, a government official, who attended the meeting, said: “It was just that the local civil administration and police couldn’t pre-empt the impact of Friday prayer on the route of main Ashura procession.”

And when the two sides came face to face, police force deployed there panicked and the rest was history, he added.

The official said both sides were putting the blame of incitement on each other and investigations were still on to establish what actually transpired on the fateful day.

He said the prime minister was not interested in knowing causes of the incident as he repeatedly castigated police for not acting timely.

After bearing the brunt of criticism targeted at the failure of police, the Inspector General of Punjab, Khan Baig, argued that enough police force, which for whatever reason failed to act, was present on the occasion, another participant confided to Dawn.

Mr Baig was speechless when an official indignantly targeted the police for its cowardice.

The official said the meeting also spent a considerable time on steps to guard against elements which might take advantage of the situation to stoke sectarian strife in the country.

All intelligence agencies are on alert and the government is engaged with the leaders of two sides to thwart any possible reaction by hardline Sunnis.

“The government has got a commitment from Shia and Sunni leaders that they will help it to defuse the situation. The government hopes that things will remain under control,” said the official.

In a carefully drafted official handout about the meeting, the prime minister was quoted as saying “speech inciting hatred, stone pelting and firing are unacceptable crimes and law enforcement authorities must not show any laxity in dealing with such incidents”. It said Mr Sharif also expressed displeasure over the “criminal inaction and laxity” of police authorities.

Hitting out at the “criminal silence” on the part of local administration and police on the propagation of sectarian hatred through loudspeakers and wall-chalking, the prime minister said such acts would not be tolerated.

In his presentation, the Punjab police chief admitted failure of local police authorities in controlling the mob which resulted in 11 deaths and injuries to 56 people. He told the meeting that all deaths were caused by firearms and refuted claims by some quarters about missing persons in the tragic incident.

Mr Baig informed the meeting that nine culprits had so far been nabbed after their identification through the aid of video footage grabbed by various media organisations.

While taking note of the negative role played by social media during the tragic incident, the prime minister directed the authorities concerned to draft a cyber law within days.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Minister for Information Pervez Rashid, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, ISI director general Lt Gen Zaheer-ul-Islam, IB director general Aftab Sultan and officials of the Prime Minister’s Office, the interior ministry and the Punjab government attended the meeting.