ISLAMABAD: The police received an SOS alert Wednesday afternoon regarding the entry of ‘terrorists’ into the Diplomatic Enclave, and learned later that they were involved in a mock exercise.

The police were told that terrorists entered the Diplomatic Enclave with plans to attack an embassy or high commission housed in the area.

Teams from the Counter Terrorism Force (CTF), Quick Response Force, Police commandoes, Anti-Terrorism Force, Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), Rangers, Special Branch, Crime Investigation Department, Crime Investigation Agency and traffic police rushed to the area, where they were met by the fire brigade and ambulances, police said.

Security at points of exit and entry into the capital was also tightened with directives to search people and vehicles, they said.

After officials reached the enclave and cordoned off the area, they were told by senior officers that the SOS call was part of a mock exercise to check the response of all the police wings and rescue departments.

Senior police officials told personnel they had to locate and ‘arrest’ individuals hired to act as terrorists without being given any information on them, including how many were present.

Police said teams were constituted under the supervision of CTF Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mohammad Amin Bukhari and SSP Operations Waqaruddin Syed to carry out the search. BDS officials conducted the search alongside the teams.

The BDS checked and cleared the area for the search teams, which later successfully intercepted two ‘suspects’ near the Chinese embassy.

Police said the mock exercise was conducted on directions from Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammad Aamir Zulfiqar Khan to tackle emergency situations in the Diplomatic Enclave, particularly at the Chinese embassy, in light of the attack on the embassy in Karachi.

The IGP had issued directives last week to heighten security at the embassy in Islamabad, with additional police deployments and strict patrolling around it, police said.

The directive was issued after the IGP and Deputy Inspector General of Police Security Waqar Chohan met with Chinese Police Attaché Wang Yong and Police Councillor Ping Yunufi, they said. Mr Chohan also visited the embassy and discussed security issues with the deputy attaché.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2018