October 18, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 5, 1428

KARACHI, Oct 17: With the threat of a suicide bombing looming large, as was pointed out by the Sindh home secretary who quoted the intelligence agencies, the chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto, will be taken to Terminal One (the old airport building) after she lands at Jinnah International Airport, from where she will be escorted to Sharea Faisal to join the crowd, Dawn has learnt from sources within the security forces.

A handout issued by the Sindh Home Department on Wednesday night warned of the danger of Ms Bhutto’s procession being attacked by a suicide bomber at the behest of an outfit styled along the lines of the Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

The statement said that the prolonged presence of the PPP chairperson on the road could compromise the arrangements for her security and would increase the chances for a terrorist attack.

While the PPP had demanded that 300 party members be permitted to receive Ms Bhutto on the tarmacadam, merely 30 party members have been allowed access, said sources. The Civil Aviation Authority has not issued passes to the rest of the people.

The federal government has appointed Major (Retd) Imtiaz Husain, the SSP of the Punjab police, as the chief security officer accompanying the PPP chairperson. He is to perform the same duties that were entrusted to the chief security officer when Ms Bhutto arrived in 1986 in Lahore.

Over 20,000 police personnel

The former prime minister will be escorted out of Terminal One in a specially-modified 20-foot shipping container with improvised bullet-proof screens, the entire gig attached to the back of a lorry. The cavalcade will be headed and followed by a fleet of police mobiles headed by police superintendents (SPs), while the flanking fleets will be headed by assistant superintendents of the police (ASPs) and deputy superintendents of the police (DSPs). These escort vehicles will be fitted with transmission jammers in order to disable any explosive device that the procession may encounter.

Sources told Dawn that the person of the former prime minister will be surrounded by three separate security cordons in addition to two teams of bomb disposal squads and two newly-imported bullet-proof cars.

A comprehensive security order was issued by the city police chief on the eve of Ms Bhutto’s arrival, specifying 20,000 police personnel lining the route of the procession. The Special Branch and the Crime Investigation Department carried out the exhaustive exercise of surveying and securing buildings, bridges and culverts along the route to be followed by Ms Bhutto’s motorcade.

Forces on standby will include reserve police forces at five points along the route, reserve forces of the city police chief and seven armoured vehicles, said the sources. They added that the matter of taking Ms Bhutto to Bilawal House after the conclusion of the public address outside the Mazar-i-Quaid is still to be worked out since her exit from the public meeting poses a risk.

Hospitals alerted

The police are expecting a crowd of 100,000 to 150,000 people to gather for Bhutto’s homecoming, said officials. All the city’s major hospitals have been out on alert while a large number of prison vans, fire tenders and other support vehicles will be kept on standby. A senior volunteer with the Edhi Foundation, Rizwan Edhi, told Dawn that the charity organisation will deploy fifty ambulances to meet any emergency.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Rangers told Dawn that they would provide security for the main terminal and the peripheral areas. The Rangers will employ four sniffer dogs to detect explosives while paramilitary forces will look after the security of all the major hospitals, including the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Complex and the Civil Hospital Karachi.