Punjab Govt directs to close parks at 6 pm in Lahore due to security concerns

LAHORE, April 3: The provincial government on Sunday directed to close all the parks in Lahore at 6pm on Saturday and Sunday as the deadly Gulshan Iqbal Park blast marks one week. The Punjab government has issued directives to shut down the parks in the evening to avoid any further mishap. On the other hand, local district administration has also shut down unauthorized Sunday markets in Gulshan Ravi and Iqbal Town and enhanced the security of the area. Several search operations were conducted to eliminate the metropolis from terrorists and other criminals in which dozens of suspects were taken into custody. Earlier on March 27, at least 76 people were killed and hundreds injured, many of them children, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Lahore’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park. Banned organization Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Taliban, which once declared loyalty to the “Islamic State” movement (IS) had claimed the responsibility for the suicide attack and released a picture of the suspect. A five-member JIT consists of SP Counter Terrorism Department Investigation, two personnel of intelligence agency and SHO and Investigation Office of the concerned police station was formed to probe into the incident.-DNA