06 February 2004	Friday	14 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: The government has decided to have new security arrangements for all cantonments in the country, informed sources told Dawn on Thursday.

The decision follows two assassination attempts on President Gen Pervez Musharraf, one on Dec 14 and the other on Dec 25.

All exit and entry points leading to cantonments will have checkpoints to be supervised by the army personnel alone. "Every entrant, including foreigners, will be subjected to a thorough check before they were allowed to enter any cantonment area," a source said.

Sources close to the committee investigating the assassination attempts said the method used by attackers at the Chaklala Bridge in Rawalpindi, from where the president's motorcade had passed, was 'very disappointing and frustrating'.

"They (terrorists) kept coming to the bridge in a PTCL vehicle daily for five consecutive days. Wearing PTCL uniform, they used to park their vehicle at the bridge. Then they would stretch their ladder down roughly 50 feet under the bridge to place heavy explosives along the wall. During the inquiry, many people said they had spotted the PTCL vehicle on the bridge many times, thinking they were carrying out certain repair work and therefore, nobody suspected anything wrong," said another source.

The intelligence report was later sent to different army units with a view to alarming the concerned people to be more vigilant in future, said the source, hoping that the new security arrangements in cantonment areas would certainly help prevent recurrence of such incidents.

About the proposed shifting of the president's residence from Rawalpindi to Islamabad, an interior ministry official said it was not possible in the immediate future, though a decision had been taken in this behalf.