KARACHI, March 20: Police have intensified security around US interests and foreign missions in the city on Thursday as US invaded Iraq early in the morning.

“We cannot rule out of reaction and to prevent any damage, we have put the police on red alert. We have also prepared a plan to ensure stringent security for the foreign missions. However, we also do not wish to create inconvenience for citizens,” head of the city’s operational police Tariq Jamil told Dawn.

The police had closed Fatima Jinnah Road and a patch of Abdullah Haroon Road, where the US consulate is located, for vehicular traffic by placing 40-feet containers. However, traffic was allowed to pass through the roads after two hours.

“We have reviewed our decision to close down the roads and decided that it would create a lot of inconvenience for people. We have beefed up security at these points and opened the roads for traffic,” Mr Jamil said.

He said police officials had gone to see foreign diplomats at US British consulates as well as certain other foreign missions in the metropolis to assure the diplomats of maximum possible security to their lives and properties.

He said 1,000 additional police force from Sindh Reserve Police (SRP) and Saeedabad Police Training Centre had been called in for their deployment around the foreign missions.

Besides, he added, police had held meetings with ulema of different schools of thought and people representing a cross section of society with a view to establish coordination. He said that coordination between the two sides was essential in order to ensure security during religious, political, social and other activities. All these opinion leaders, the police official said, agreed to extend their full cooperation to the police.

Meanwhile, police and rangers have started patrolling the roads and streets at different places in the metropolis. Police have been deployed at different city-based US food outlets. Security has also been beefed up at airport and the sea port besides the oil installations at Keamari.