LAHORE: Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Additional IG Fayyaz Ahmad Dev on Monday said that Lahore police were all set for the security of Pak-Australia International One Day cricket series at Qaddafi Stadium and would provide maximum security to all three scheduled one day matches.
“We are ready to provide complete protection to the Australian and Pakistani players as well as spectators with even more elaborate and improved security plan than the previous ones, ” Fayyaz Ahmad Dev added.
The police had chalked out a comprehensive security plan for all the matches of Pak-Australia One Day cricket series including one T-20 International Cricket match, he added.
According to the security plan, he said, more than 8, 000 police officers including SSP, SDPOs, SHOs, Dolphin Squad, Police Response Unit and Elite Force would perform security, patrolling and traffic management duties during the matches to ensure foolproof security of the event along with smooth flow of traffic.
Accordingly 10 SPs, 31 DSPs, 77 SHOs, 332 upper subordinates, more than 6, 000 FCs including lady constables, 204 teams of dolphin squad, 107 teams of Police Response Unit (PRU) would be deputed on security and patrolling duties during One Day and T-20 matches, he said and added that Australian White Ball Squad and officials had been given the status of state guests according to the government directions.
He said the CCTV cameras around Gaddafi Stadium and parking areas had been made fully operational, whereas security plan, SOPs and traffic advisory would be strictly enforced in letter and spirit. The CCPO said that maximum efforts would be made to least disturb the routine activities of the citizens, traders and businessman during the matches as zero route would be provided to the teams to ensure their security by containing traffic only during the movements of teams from their residential places to the stadium and vice versa.
He said three layers security would be provided to the citizens who would only be allowed to enter the stadium after complete checking process. The CCPO Lahore said that Lahore police had earlier provided foolproof security to all the national and international sports and cultural events being held in the provincial metropolis.
Fayyaz Ahmad Dev said that round the clock monitoring of the residential places of teams, routes, matches and movements of players and citizens in and round the Stadium had been ensured through CCTV cameras. He said that Dolphin Squad, Elite and Police Response Unit teams would continue their effective patrolling around the specific areas of the city.
He said snipers had been deputed on the rooftops to keep an eye on all the movements during these matches. Search and sweep operations were being conducted on daily basis in the city particularly around the cricket stadium and designated areas, he maintained.
Fayyaz Ahmad Dev directed the concerned officers to remain in complete liaison and coordination with related departments including Punjab Safe Cities Authority, PCB, district administration, allied departments and law enforcement agencies to successfully implement on all the security arrangements.