LAHORE: In the wake of high alert for Muharram in Punjab, the Military Operations (MO) Directorate,GeneralHeadquarters (GHQ), has acceded to the request of the Punjab government for deployment of 32 army companies in27 districts ofthe province.

The GHQ has given a go-ahead to its field formations to complete their deployment in respective areas by the evening of Muharram 7 (Sunday), a senior official privy to the development told Dawn.

He said the army reserves would also remain alert at major canton-ment areas while five Rangers` companies would also be deployed in Punjab.

These security details were shared in a high-level meeting held a couple of days back. Senior officials from the army, Rangers and police participated in the meeting.

The meeting was informed that this year the Punjab Rangers had decreased its deployment for Muharram all over the province due to high alert at the borders in the wake of India-Pakistan tension.

The meeting finalized a threelayer security strategy to respond to emergency situation, the official said.

According to the standard opera-tion procedure (SOP) shared in the meeting, the police will act as a front line security agency followed by Rangers and army as the second and third force during Muharram to thwart any untoward incident.

The official said that Muharram 8 to 10 were highly sensitive days for security and the Punjab police had declared 10 out of 27 districts sensitive. The provincial capital Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Jhang, Multan and Rawalpindi are among sensitive districts.

The Punjab police have deployed over 200,000 personnel to cover the Muharram processions and other religious gatherings.

As the Muharram securityentered into a critical phase, the threat warnings are emerging fast to sabotage the peace.

On Saturday, the official said, the home department issued a high alert for Punjab issuing a warning for the law enforcement agencies on the basis of intelligence reports that four `suicide bombers` had entered the province to carry out terror activities.

He said the home department alerted the LEAs to take stringent security measures to avoid any untoward incident, particularly in Lahore.

`We are fully alert to deal with any emergency situation and have deployed over 16,000 police per-sonnel in the provincial capital, Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) retired Capt Amin Wains told Dawn.

He said a joint flag march by police and the Rangers was being carried out in various parts of the city.

Confirming a cut in the deployment of Rangers for the Muharram duty, he said it was a meager decrease.

The CCPO made it clear that security arrangements were sufficient to provide cover to all Muharramrelate d activities in Lahore.

All arrangements have been made in line with the security guidelines issued by the Home Department to maintain peace during Muharram, he said.