Pakistan: Security on high alert in Islamabad amid terror threat

Islamabad [Pakistan], February 22 (ANI): Islamabad’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) Akbar Nasir Khan has issued strict orders to keep security on high alert to maintain law and order situation in the capital, a police spokesman said, The News International newspaper reported.

The IGP Islamabad directed all officers to be present in their respective areas and briefed the officials regarding the duty. The officials on duty should be equipped with full safety gadgets and keep a close watch on government and private vehicles, ambulances and suspicious persons. Strict action should be taken against unregistered vehicles/ motorcycles and the ongoing crackdown against professional beggars and their facilitators across the city should be intensified, Akbar said, according to The Express Tribune newspaper.

According to the IGP, the campaign for the registration of domestic workers and tenants should be made more effective and legal action should be taken against the elements who do not register. He further said that the security of red zones and diplomatic enclaves should be made more effective and the entry of vehicles having non-pattern number plates and tinted glasses should be banned as well as legal action would be taken against such violators.

Checking of uniformed personnel and security guards should be made mandatory at pickets or entry points. The IGP said that Islamabad Capital Police is always engaged to protect the life and property of the citizens, and maintaining law and order in the federal capital Islamabad is the utmost priority of the Islamabad Capital Police, according to The News International newspaper.

Amid Pakistan’s economic crisis and the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has re-emerged as a potential threat to Islamabad, Dawn reported citing the US Institute of Peace’s (USIPs) report.
“Amid Pakistan’s economic crisis and the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, the TTP has re-emerged as an increasingly potent threat,” warned the report, released in Washington by the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

USIP argued that the Taliban’s response to being confronted about their support for the TTP has been to level counter-accusations. USIP report fears Pakistan’s deteriorating economy will limit its ability to act against terrorists Such rhetorical signals are matched by anecdotal reports from UN officials and other observers quoted in the USIP report of TTP individuals moving freely and conducting business in Afghan cities.

Interlocutors with access to Kandahar report that the Taliban emir and his close advisers were “unlikely to waiver in supporting the TTP on ideological grounds,” the USIP report noted. Referring to Kabul’s recent criticism of Islamabad’s policies, the report argued that “this undiplomatic rhetoric underscores the Taliban’s determination to continue supporting the TTP, even in the face of intensified pressure from Pakistan”.