05 January 2004	Monday	12 Ziqa'ad 1424

ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The Islamabad police will be restructured to effectively combat terrorism and provide better security to the masses, Chairman National Crisis Management Cell Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema told Dawn on Sunday.

He said the capital police was being restructured on modern lines so that it could foil new and sophisticated methods of terrorism. He said meetings were being held in the ministry of interior to finalize the plan under which the Islamabad police would have separate squads for fighting terrorism and security of VVIPs.

In reply to a question, he said since the assassination attempts on President Gen Pervez Musharraf, the government had decided to establish a new department for security of the president and the prime minister.

"Although, both the president and prime minister have their own security squads, we are now institutionalising them to make a permanent department to exclusively look after their security," he added.

The official said such departments already existed in many countries. "The US president has his own security department. Similarly, special security departments have been set up for the Indian prime minister and other heads of states," he said.

In reply to another question, Brigadier Cheema said most of the security personnel in the new department would belong to the Islamabad police. "We would also hire best officers from other law-enforcement agencies," he added.

He said latest equipment, including sophisticated explosive material detectors, were being purchased for the Islamabad police under the restructuring plan.

The official agreed that Islamabad police lacked the facility to detect explosives as they had so far been provided with metal detectors only. "A new sort of plastic bomb was planted under a bridge on the VVIP route in Rawalpindi on December 14, which went off a few moments after President Musharraf's motorcade crossed the bridge," he said.