The three-day Tablighi Ijtema, held at the Limbe Jalgaon village on the Aurangabad-Pune highway, drew lakhs of people from across the nation and some parts of the world on the concluding day on Monday.
The state home department, along with the district administration, ensured adequate measures and tight security during the congregation that passed off without any untoward incident.
As per the preliminary calculations by the police’s Special Branch sleuths, around 30 lakh people attended the Ijtema.
As a part of the impeccable security arrangements, Aurangabad police deployed over 5,000 policemen, including special squads of anti-sabotage and quick response. Apart from this, around 2,000 special police officers, assisted by about 11, 000 volunteers belonging to the organisers of the event, were deployed.
With the event passing off smoothly and peacefully, the city police have decided to document this event as a case study on police-public coordination for handling of major public events.
The preparation for the congregation had started over four months ago. Sending a message of inclusiveness, hundreds of farmers coming from different religious backgrounds, readily gave their farmlands for the event, taking the total area to around 2,500 acres. Also, the event witnessed the installation of one of the largest pandals measuring over 95 lakh square feet, which was about 2km wide and 6km long.
As per polices estimation, about four lakh vehicles were parked in the specified area of 1,500 acres at the venue.
City police commissioner Yashasvi Yadav told, “It was a team effort, apart from being an example of police-public coordination in handling of major public event.”
Not entirely depending on the manpower, police had made a make-shift control room at the venue, from where they monitored the event with the help of 600 CCTV cameras and four drone cameras.
District collector Naval Kishore Ram released a statement appreciating the joint efforts of the administration and the organisers that helped in ensuring peaceful event.
The administration had deployed over 250 of its staff, including several deputy collector rank officers, and appointed 13 nodal officers for the smooth coordination with the organisers as well as all the government agencies.
Apart from 12 independent teams of fire brigade department, the administration had deployed 10 teams of food and drug department headed by inspector rank officers to ensure good quality of food was served to people attending the congregation.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings