RAWALPINDI: The federal government has announced a red alert in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) till the upcoming general elections.

It was also decided to connect the city’s entry and exit points to the Safe City Project for better monitoring and surveillance.

The federal government has already made the Counter Terrorism Force (CTF) active in Islamabad with assistance from the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department.

The ICT administration has categorised security alerts in three colour codes- red, orange and green.

The security threat level has never been green across the country.

Red is for severe risk of terrorist attacks and for taking the maximum protective measures and green is for the lowest level of threat.

Orange is for increasing protection measures based on specific information of a suspected terrorist plot.

A senior police official told Dawn the colour codes are issued by the office of the inspector general of police (IGP) and that all concerned departments- including the Special Branch, Security Division, CTF and the Crime Investigation Agency- prepare their security plans accordingly.

Directives regarding taking appropriate security measures are issued by the IGP to all concerned departments as well.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2018