Cellular services suspended in many cities of Pakistan

Cellular services have been suspended in several cities of the country from 8am on Thursday amidst terrorism threats on the Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA).

According to the official announcement, the mobile phone services in 46 districts across the country are scheduled to be reopened after 10 PM.

The service was suspended in 18 districts of Punjab, nine in Balochistan and six each in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The cities and towns where the service were blocked included Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu.

It is now an easy thing for the government to block mobile service on the strange plea of security concerns that the militants use cell phones to plan and carry out attacks and that the planners also pass on information to the facilitators of terror suspects.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Lahore police had submitted an application to the Punjab government for suspending cellular services in the city. The application called for suspending services in Lahore from 9am to 12am tomorrow (Thursday) in order to avert any acts of terrorism on the Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA).

Shias processions take place every year on the 40^th day of Imam Hussain’s (RA) death and have previously been targeted by terrorists.

In November on Ashura, at least five people were killed and eleven sustained injuries in twin blasts that occurred in Karachi’s Orangi Town – both blasts targeted imambargahs. On the same day, a bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan killed at least five people and injured over a hundred during a procession.

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Posted by Web Desk on Jan 3 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.