The NWFP Home and Tribal Affairs Department has told the inspector general of police (IGP) to take preventive measures and increase vigilance during Muharram after reports that activists of a banned organisation could play havoc with human lives by contaminating water and food items. In a letter sent to the IGP, the home department revealed that the activists of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) had conspired a sinister plan to target Shias by contaminating water with sodium nitrate during the month of Muharram. Citing a source, the letter revealed that security agencies had recovered considerable quantity of sodium nitrate from LJ activists. âThe chemical can kill by causing the circulatory system to collapse,â said the letter.
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The letter also warned that terrorists might poison important people by contaminating their food. The home department directed police officials to ensure strict checks of food being served to VIPs at various occasions and also take special care at sabeels (place where water is provided to mourners), which could be contaminated during Muharram. An intelligence agency official told Daily Times that the workers of the defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba had been ordered to put sodium nitrate in sabeels placed inside and outside imambargahs and all the places during mourning processions. The targeted districts, the official said, were Peshawar, Hangu, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan, Abbottabad, Mansehra and Parachinar. |