November 2, 2001	Friday	Shaba’an 15, 1422

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KOHAT, Nov 1: The Japanese embassy has told its citizens engaged in various developmental projects that they can go to their cities of work as soon as the Pakistani defence ministry removes such areas from the list of very dangerous zones which had been put in category 5, a highly-placed military source told Dawn on Thursday.

The defence ministry has put various cities of Pakistan in five categories depending on their vulnerability to the US-led attacks which include the whole of the NWFP, large parts of Baluchistan and some regions of Punjab from the country’s defence point.

He explained the areas astride the border, which mostly comprise tribal territory, had been put in category five and the categories move down as one descends towards east.

For example, Parachinar in the Kurram Agency, Kohat and areas in Rawalpindi were in category five.

These areas were within 100 mile air radius from the border. Beyond that in the east, the categories descend such as Lahore which was in category one — the safest as far as the vulnerability to the US air strikes was concerned.

However, there is little hope for resumption of vital projects by the foreigners as the US air strikes in Afghanistan are being intensified by the day, with no prospect of their being halted altogether in the near future, the source added.

He clarified that these cities had been specifically marked as dangerous from country’s defence point of view and there was no danger to the lives of the staff of foreign construction companies, which in our case were Chinese or Japanese.

A Japanese delegation visited Darra Adam Khel and Kohat where the work on the seven-billion-rupee Kohat Tunnel Project had been stopped.

The NHA officials accompanied them to the Darra bazaar and Kohat city to satisfy them that there was no threat to their lives from the local population who knew that the Japanese were working here on the tunnel project and because 1,700 local people had been employed in the project.

The delegation later assured the project director of the Kohat Tunnel, Mr Pervez Gul that they had been asked by their government that if the Pakistani authorities put Kohat in category four then they could resume work on the project.