From A Correspondent

PESHAWAR, Aug 11: The cost of security arrangements made for the protection of President Pervez Musharraf runs into several million rupees as several battalions of the NWFP police were moved to Chitral to augment security arrangements undertaken by paramilitary and army troops.

Senior officials of the provincial government said that during his two-day visit to the remote town on July 8 and 9, President Musharraf visited Shandur Pass to witness annual festival featuring polo match between Chitral and Gilgit and inaugurated the construction work on the Lowari tunnel project and the Booni-Shandur road project.

Some 38 battalions of the NWFP police, each with an average of 25 policemen, were moved from various parts of the province to Chitral two days ahead of the President’s arrival on July 8.

Majority of the police troops were mobilised from Peshawar.

Officials said that a large number of police are moved to Chitral in connection with the Shandur Polo festival each year.

According to officials, more than Rs1.3 million were spent on the police force — involving expenditures on their stay, transportation and three meals a day for about six days.

Some 1,000 troops of the Chitral scouts, according to official sources, were deployed around the Shandur Polo Ground.

Similarly, hundreds of troops from Pakistan Army’s 102 Brigade were deployed at the site of the Lowari tunnel project, where the President presided over the foundation stone laying ceremony.

While commandos and soldiers of the Pakistan army laid first and second cordons around the President and places he visited, police were deployed at places far off the venues the president visited.