Karachi, Nov 27 (IANS) Some 12,000 policemen are to be deployed in this volatile southern port city to maintain law and order on Eid on Saturday.
Sindh police has also finalised its Eid security plan for the entire province on the directives of provincial Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza, Online news agency reported.

Under the plan, the station house officers of all police stations have been asked to remain in constant touch with the administrators of mosques, imambargas, shopping centres and animal markets.

Everyone entering and leaving the city would be thoroughly checked, for which additional force would be deployed at police pickets and for patrolling.

Special control rooms set up in the entire city would be fully operational 24 hours a day to meet any untoward incident.

Karachi frequently witnesses bitter clashes between Urdu-speaking Mohajirs represented by the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and Pushtuns represented by the Awami National Party. Ironically, both parties form part of Pakistan’s ruling federal coalition.

More than 30 people were killed in one of this year’s worst such clashes in April.

Karachi is also the site of Pakistan’s biggest seasonal cattle market that has been set up along both sides of the city’s Super Highway. This year, it is spread in an area measuring about 650 acres.

Cattle market administrator Shahab Ali Ikram said the cattle market can accommodate 400,000 sacrificial animals, including 200,000 cows and 200,000 goats.

Tight security measures were in place with closed circuit cameras installed throughout the market, Ikram said, adding a helicopter had also been deployed to maintain aerial surveillance in the run up to Eid.