ISLAMABAD: Police in Islamabad on Tuesday beefed up security by deploying additional uniformed personnel ahead of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) long march which is expected to reach the federal capital later today.
The PPP started marching toward Islamabad from Karachi last week to mount political pressure on Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign while demanding fresh elections in the country.
As many as 10,000 personnel belonging to the Punjab police, Rangers and Frontier Constabulary have been deployed in the capital along with the Islamabad Police to ensure security of the participants of the march.
“The main area designated for the public gathering has been cordoned off and security has been beefed up in the capital,” Awais Ahmed, deputy inspector general police, said while talking to the media.
He said a separate parking area was also designated for the participants of the rally while police were carrying out sweep and search operations in the capital to avoid any untoward incident.
“Fool-proof security arrangements have been put in place in Islamabad for the rally,” inspector Naeem Iqbal, a spokesperson for the Islamabad Police, told Arab News.
He said a drone unit for surveillance was also deployed in the city along with snipers and special security staff near important government buildings.
Iqbal said the participants of the rally were scheduled to disperse peacefully by 8pm, though he added they could extend the program until 11pm.
The traffic police in Islamabad also placed diversions on different roads while designating alternate routes for general public.
According to an official handout, Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed visited a control room to review the security situation in the federal capital.
He expressed satisfaction over the security arrangements made for the march and directed officials to watch out for any miscreants.
“It is the democratic right of people to arrange demonstrations and protest marches,” he said. “However, nobody will be allowed to take law into their hands.”
Islamabad police ramp up security as opposition party supporters rally to demand PM step down
https://arab.news/jcnfq
Islamabad police ramp up security as opposition party supporters rally to demand PM step down
- Police have deployed a drone unit for surveillance along with snipers and special security staff in the capital
- Pakistan People Party started its march from Karachi last week, asking the prime minister to step down
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
