Police leaves cancelled as terror attacks feared during protests.

Byline: Mohammad Asghar

RAWALPINDI -- The Punjab police chief has banned leaves of personnel in the light of intelligence reports that terror groups may target the participants of protests planned by the opposition parties.

In a directive, it has been conveyed to all the divisional police chiefs, the commandant Punjab Constabulary, Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Special Branch and Special Protection Unit (SPU), traffic police and other police wings that all types of casual leaves of police have been banned till further orders.

The orders issued by IGP Arif Nawaz Khan stated that the political and religious parties had planned protests and were also expected to stage a sit-in in Islamabad that could be detrimental to the peaceful atmosphere of the province.

It was stated that during the demonstrations, terror groups might get a chance to target the participants. As such, there is a dire need to ensure availability of sufficient strength of the Punjab police to tackle any law and order situation in the province. Meanwhile, citing intelligence reports, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) alerted provincial police chiefs of the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, commandant of Frontier Constabulary and directors-general Rangers of Punjab and Sindh that a terror group might attack various government and civilian installations and...

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