LAHORE: The mourning activities reached their peak on Monday (Muharram 9) as various Zuljinah, Alam and Tazia processions were taken out from different parts of the city and they all terminated peacefully after covering their traditional routes.

The main processions of Monday included those taken out from Islampura, Zafar Colony, Wasanpura, Shadman, Green Town, Mughalpura, and Ferozepur Road. Most of them had joined the one taken out from Islampura (Pandu Street) to reach Nisar Haveli, where final majlis-e-aza was being addressed by speakers by the time this report was filed.

The main procession of Youm-i-Ashur would, as always, be taken out from Nisar Haveli, where thousands of mourners had already gathered and more processions were joining. Mercifully, peace was prevailing as police had taken additional measures after the deadly blast on Sunday at Wagah.

According to the city police, it had created four-layer security paraphernalia for the participants.

“Each and every person trying to join the processions has to go through a thorough body search four times before being allowed to join any procession at any point in time,” says an official of the city police. The police teams also held marathon sessions with licence holders of processions to request cooperation and also deployed snipers on 40 buildings along the route of procession for Muharram 9.

Over 3,500 policemen were ensuring security, which had become prime concern of the city police, he said and added: “In addition, aerial surveillance would also be carried out to avoid any incident of terrorism and some army helicopters had already been deployed for the job.”

The main procession of Muharram 9 was still at what is known as Khaima-i-Sadat (at Jain Mandir) area and was offering prayers by the time of filing of the report. It would join the main procession, which would be taken out from Nisar Haveli later at night. Another procession from Model Town would also join the main procession today (Tuesday) before both would terminate after

Sham-i-Ghariban – to observe final hours of martyrdom – at their traditional destination at Karbala Gamey Shah.

Ambulances by the city district government and various other relief organisations were on alert for transporting those wounded in flagellation to hospitals while the volunteers will provide first aid to the mourners during and after the mourning. A large number of ‘Sabeels’ of juices, milk and water were set up along the route of the procession to facilitate the mourners.

Published in Dawn, November 4th , 2014