ISLAMABAD: Security authorities put the capital police and other agencies on ‘Red Alert’ on Thursday in anticipation of terrorist attacks on Islamabad in retaliation of bombing and drone strikes on their hideouts in tribal areas.Soon afterwards, the Islamabad authorities decided to reinforce police deployment and check posts, close some roads leading to top security Red Zone permanently and restrict the entry of heavy vehicles into the city during daytime.

However, the restriction will not apply to the heavy vehicles of the metro bus project and delivery vans carrying supplies of daily use.

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) Shura had marked Pakistan’s major cities as targets for its operational a month ago, with Islamabad and Rawalpindi topping the list.

A senior officer of Rawalpindi police said there was no specific threat to the twin cities but the force was taking “all possible preventive measures” nevertheless as the threat has greatly increased after the brazen terrorist attack on the Karachi airport and the drone strike that have followed.

Both face greater terrorist threat since attack on Karachi airport and drone strikes that followed

Intelligence reports said TTP militants could target key installations, Imambargahs and madressahs in Rawalpindi.

In Islamabad, the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police Sultan Azam Temuri, responsible for operations, told his officers called to a meeting that everyone in the force, including traffic cops and policemen in plain clothes, should carry arms to be able to engage miscreants before specialized units arrive.

AIG Temuri also asked the officers to see that the men they command get training in handling explosives and defusing bombs from the Bomb Disposal Squad.SP-rank officers were told to check on people staying in hotels and guesthouses and slums in their precincts.

Police have to be particularly vigilant at public and crowded places, weekly bazaars, seminaries, educational institutions and bus stands.

A new SOP (standard operating procedure) devised for the long-haul transport says trucks and like vehicles will be allowed to enter Islamabad between 11pm and 7am, through Gandam Gowdown Chowk on I. J. Principal Road, Islamabad Chowk on Kashmir Highway and Rawat on Islamabad Highway and on producing a permit issued by the Islamabad Transport Authority and valid for one month.

According to the SOP, police deployed at the three entry points will register the particulars of the vehicle and its driver in a log book and check it with detectors before allowing it in. Suspicious vehicles would be referred to Bomb Disposal Squad and scanners.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2014