Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Fayyaz Ahmad Dev has said that the Lahore police are all set to provide foolproof security to the Pak-Australia one-day international cricket series starting from today at Qaddafi Stadium.

“We are ready to provide complete protection to the Australian White Ball Squad and Pakistani players as well as spectators with even more elaborate and improved security plan than the previous ones,” the CCPO said in a statement on Monday. He said the Lahore police have chalked out a comprehensive security plan for all the Pak-Australia one-day cricket series including one T20 International Cricket match.

According to the security plan, over 8,000 police officers including 10 SSPs, 31 SDPOs, 77 SHOs, 332 upper subordinates, 6,000 Frontier Constabulary personnel, lady constables, 204 teams of Dolphin Squad and 107 teams of Police Response Unit (PRU) have been deputed on security and traffic management duties.

The capital police chief said that CCTV cameras around the stadium and parking areas have been made fully operational whereas security plan and traffic advisory would be strictly enforced in letter and spirit. He 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.

The CCPO added that round-the-clock monitoring of the residential places of teams, routes, matches and movements of players and citizens in and round the stadium will be ensured through CCTV cameras. “Snipers have been deputed on the rooftops to keep an eye on all suspected movements during the matches.”

He directed the concerned officers to remain in complete liaison with related departments including, the Punjab Safe Cities Authority, PCB, district administration and law enforcement agencies to successfully implement the security arrangements.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on March 29, 2022.