KARACHI, Oct 20: Pakistan People’s Party guards have taken over the security arrangements of its chairperson Benazir Bhutto within Bilawal House following the Oct 18 carnage as they have not allowed even a single policeman or official to be posted inside the former prime minister’s residence.
However, police officials claim that they are still in charge of the security plan, which was kept “invisible” in line with its sensitivity. They said although the PPP itself made arrangements for their leader’s security, the whole plan was chalked out by the police in coordination with the party leadership.
“We have deliberately kept the security invisible in and outside the Bilawal House,” Azhar Ali Farooqi, the capital city police officer, said. “Our uniformed and plainclothes personnel are there and keeping a close watch on the movement of people and vehicles near the Bilawal House. We won’t elaborate it, but we can say that we are there with fool-proof security measures.”
He said the PPP leadership was coordinating with the police and security agencies in executing the security plan, and he didn’t agree to the notion that the police force was not allowed inside the Bilawal House by the party’s own security people.
Some 140 people were killed and more than 500 injured in a suicide bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto’s welcome convoy on Thursday night. Though Ms Bhutto escaped unhurt, security of the former prime minister remains a serious concern mainly for the provincial government amid intelligence reports, shared with it by the federal authorities, which speak of a death threat to the PPP leader.
However, two different claims made by party leadership and police officials suggest a difference of stands between the two on her security arrangements made after the attack. The party leaders are determined to do the job on their own without any assistance from government agencies.
A single police van with a few armed personnel was witnessed parked outside the main entrance to the Bilawal House on Saturday, while another van was at the back entrance. The party appears more dependent on the measures it has taken on its own.
“We have our own security inside the Bilawal House,” said Rashid Rabbani, Karachi division president of the PPP. “We don’t know about the police plan outside the Bilawal House, neither have our leadership been informed about that by the authorities. In fact we are not bothered about that.”
He claimed that there was no policeman inside the Bilawal House, where former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was whisked away almost 30 minutes after the attack on her welcome convoy. Mr Rabbani, who had been part of the PPP team that held several meetings with the Sindh government to finalise Ms Bhutto security plan on her arrival, said the party was capable of carrying out the security arrangements without any external assistance.
A road leading to the Bilawal House in the Clifton area from the Kharkar Chowrangi to the Seaview beach was closed on Friday morning, when Benazir Bhutto entered her residence after surviving the attempt on her life. The police decided to open only a single track of the road parallel to the Bilawal House on Friday -- a day after the attack. However, on Saturday both roads were opened for traffic with no extraordinary security measures witnessed around the Bilawal House.