According to a notification issued, District Magistrate ICT Irfan Nawaz Memon prohibited all kinds of public gatherings, corner meetings, and rallies at any public place in wake of the upcoming Local Government elections within the limits of district Islamabad by invoking Section 144 of CrPC.

The notification said that the security in the federal capital had been beefed up after the recent threat alert by law enforcement agencies and a suicide attack on the police personnel in Islamabad earlier in the day.

“To provide immediate protection to public life and property, the directions thereinafter appearing are necessary to be issued,” said the notification.

Earlier in the day at least one policeman was killed and eight others were injured in a suicide blast in the I-10/4 area of Islamabad.

The police said that they spotted a suspicious vehicle with a man and a woman aboard and when the police stopped the vehicle, the man, while being checked by the officers of Eagle Squad of police, went inside the vehicle on some pretext and then detonated himself.