September 27, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 14, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: Parts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi will be sealed off on Thursday by police and other security forces to prevent any agitation on the occasion of submission of nomination papers by presidential candidates at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Security sources told Dawn on Wednesday that barbed wire would ring the Election Commission office, situated opposite the Supreme Court building on the Constitution Avenue, and heavy trucks and other obstructions would block the roads leading to the ECP to general public.

Presidential candidates and their retinues of “specified numbers” will be let through after security check.

City police sources said Constitution Avenue and the road in front of the State Bank of Pakistan would be closed to traffic.

But an Islamabad Traffic Police statement said it would allow traffic in the Election Commission office area and would divert it away if “unusual rush” was experienced or the city police so requested.

Riot police would be deployed at points of entry to stop people from going to the restricted area, the sources said.

Apparently these measures were decided in view of the plans announced by the opposition parties and the lawyers’ community last week to gather at the Election Commission on the occasion to protest President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s candidature.

However local authorities had already taken care of such a prospect by arresting hundreds of political activists under preventive detention laws.

More than 2,000 police reinforcements called from the Punjab province and deployed at Bhara Kahu, Golra and Rawat entry points suggested that no outsider will be allowed to enter the capital city.

Five bomb disposal squad have been put on the alert as part of the security plans, two of them would be patrolling the core area.

Plain-clothed police personnel have been deployed around the residences of the leaders belonging to the opposition All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) to keep a watch on then.

Our Gujar Khan correspondent adds: The local police arrested over 87 opposition political activists in Gujar Khan area and Jhelum. However some of them were later released on personal sureties, the police sources said.

In Gujar Khan tehsil the arrests of the political workers of JI, PML-N and JUP continued till filing of this report.

Police sources said about 27 political activists were rounded up in Gujar Khan and some of them were sent to Rawalpindi while others were put on house arrests.

Former MNA of Jamaat Islami Raja Muhammad Zaheer has been put on house arrest while raids were being conducted to arrest Chaudhry Muhammad Riaz former provincial minister and senior vice-president of PML-N Punjab chapter.

Similarly in Jhelum district the police sources confirmed the arrest of 60 activists while some of them were released or put on house arrest after they reportedly assured that they would not come to the roads.

However the district police officer when contacted, said that the arrests were not in connection with the APDM or lawyers’ strike call but part of security measures to thwart any terrorist threats.

Meanwhile Punjab constabulary have been called to assist the district police at Mandra toll plaza and Missa Kaswal area. Private cars and buses are being screened to net political activists travelling to Rawalpindi-Islamabad.