KARACHI: The city is among various ‘sensitive’ parts of the country where army troops will be available to assist the civil administration to ensure no untoward incident occurred on the occasion of the Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain, officials said on Monday.

Military officials said more than 10,000 army soldiers would be working with the civil administrations in parts of the country to maintain law and order.

They said those troops would be ‘out of barracks and nearby’ the areas wherever the civil administrations preferred them to stay and would be available to assist whenever they received a SOS call.

Officials in the provincial home department said they had sent a request for deployment of the army soldiers in Karachi and ‘a few more cities’ to ensure the Chehlum passed off peacefully.

“The troops will be called in only in emergency. They will not be securing the processions as we have already thousands of policemen and paramilitary Rangers to control the situation,” said an official.

Besides more than 10,000 Rangers personnel in the city, additional contingents had also been called from elsewhere in the province to remain standby.

The provincial government had already imposed a ban on pillion riding in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana for Monday and Tuesday.

The home department’s proposal for the suspension of the mobile phone services in six major cities had been given a formal nod, said another official.

“We are informed from Islamabad that the mobile phone networks in the cities we requested for will be turned off from tomorrow evening for at least 12 hours,” said an official.

The provincial health department already declared a state of ‘emergency’ in all government hospitals and directed paramedics to make sure the availability of lifesaving drugs.

Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui said fire tenders and rescue ambulances would be deployed across the procession route while camps would be set up to facilitate mourners.

Meanwhile, Sindh police chief Shahid Nadim Baloch divided the city into different sectors, with an SP in charge of each sector. These sectors are further divided into sub-sectors and each sub-sector is supervised by a DSP.

CM ordered foolproof security

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah directed the IGP and Rangers director general to ensure foolproof security on the eve of Chehlum and during Tuesday’s processions.

He asked them to increase patrolling on the main arteries, streets and especially take all-out measures to secure mosques, Imambargahs and routes of mourning processions.

“The intelligence network should be activated effectively, snap checking of vehicles including at the entry and exit points of the metropolis be carried out without fail,” Mr Shah said.

The chief minister made a public request to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

District courts to be closed today

The district courts on the premises of the City Courts will remain closed on Tuesday, said sources.

They said that the provincial government approached the Sindh High Court requesting for a closure of the district courts on account of security reasons.

Meanwhile Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar directed the SHC judges to not pass an adverse order in any matter on Tuesday for non-appearance of lawyers or the litigants who might not reach the court due to exceptional security arrangements made by the provincial government on the Chehlum.

SHC Registrar Fahim Ahmed Siddiqui issued a circular on Monday notifying the information to all SHC judges.

The circular reads: “It is notified for the information of all the honourable judges of this court that owing to the exceptional security arrangements made by the Government of Sindh on the occasion of Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain (R.A.) the litigant public and the advocates may have difficulties in reaching the court for pursuing their cases. The Honourable Chief Justice, in this behalf, has been pleased to desire that no adverse order be passed in any matter on Tuesday, Dec 24, 2013 due to non-appearance of the advocate(s) or the litigant(s). The regular court work shall thus be conducted accordingly.”