ISLAMABAD, 21 March 2003 — Security forces were on high alert across the country yesterday in anticipation of a possible militant backlash to the United States’ launch of war against Iraq.
“We have mobilized all forces to secure potential targets throughout the country,” Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani told AFP.
Foreign embassies, churches, and key government installations were under heavy guard as fury spread through extremist groups and protesters took to the streets denouncing US President George W. Bush as a “dog” and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as a “hero of Muslims.”
Police guarding Islamabad’s diplomatic enclave round the clock were increased from 200 to 300. Extra barricades were installed outside the US Embassy, already fortified since late 2001 with razor wire, manned checkpoints, concrete barriers and camps of armed guards surrounding the sprawling compound.
Islamabad hosts more than 150 embassies, missions and international organizations including the United Nations. One UN office and 23 embassies are located in the enclave.
“Security at the diplomatic enclave has been raised to the maximum,” a security official said. Roads leading to the US Consulate in Karachi, already the target of two fatal terror attacks in the past nine months, were closed off and massive trailers parked across them to divert traffic.
“It is part of precautionary measures we have taken to avert possible sabotage in Karachi,” the city’s police operations chief Tariq Jamil told AFP.
Three Americans and 11 French nationals were among 74 people killed in a wave of attacks on Western and Christian targets in Pakistan by militants wreaking vengeance for the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan.
Most of the victims were Pakistanis and included three suicide bombers. Islamabad was crawling with police and soldiers yesterday stationed on almost every corner for a rehearsal of Sunday’s National Day Parade by the military.
F-16, F-18 hornet and Mirage jets screamed overhead practicing aerial display routines and soldiers marched down the city’s main boulevard.
