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| October 29, 2005 | Saturday | Ramzan 24, 1426 |
Stringent security provided for England players
ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: The touring England cricketers have to quickly get used to the hordes of security personnel who will be shadowing them all through the tour.
Michael Vaughan’s men already have had a taste of Pakistani security since arriving in Islamabad three days ago - gun-totting commandos, escort cars with flashing lights and sirens wailing, sniffer dogs and heavy contingents of police.
It is a familiar sight each time a foreign cricket team arrives. As soon as the Englishmen stepped on to the tarmac of Islamabad International Airport till the time they head home, the securitymen will literally be breathing down their necks.
From the team hotel in Islamabad their bus is escorted by several police cars and commandos of the elite force to the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium where the tourists have trained for the past two days. As long as the players are in the nets, policemen stand alert on the stands while others man the gates.
Journalists also have to go through security checks when entering the ground while life is made much too tough for the photographers who carry heavy bags of equipment.
The much too heavy security at times gives the impression that things are really too bad in the country.
Although it is not so, the security aspect has had to be given serious consideration following the events of 9/11 when Australia and West Indies refused to play here.
England rejected Karachi as a Test venue as did South Africa and India before them after a suicide bomber rammed his car laden with explosives into a bus parked outside the touring New Zealand team hotel in May 2002.
It killed 14 people that included 11 French naval engineers.
With security so tight in the generally secure sister cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, things are certain to get even tighter when the visitors move to Lahore and then on to Multan where the first Test is due to start on Nov 12.
A senior police official told Dawn that personnel had been called up from all over the district and will be on duty on match days. England open their tour with a three-day match against the Pakistan Cricket Board Patron’s XI in Rawalpindi on Monday.
Pickets on the roads leading to the stadium will be in place on match days while officers of the police department will be deputed at each gate of the Rawalpindi Stadium so that no untoward incident occurs.
The official said that police in plainclothes will also be on duty while walk-through gates are to be put up with metal detectors also being used.
After setting the tour in motion with the three-day game, England will return to Rawalpindi in December to play two back-to-back One-day Internationals.
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