New security plan for Pakistan capital may cause shortage of food, petrol

ISLAMABAD, September 25 (Internews): The new security strategy of the police in Pakistan federal capital, Islamabad, to ban the entry of heavy vehicles to avoid terrorism is likely to cause a serious shortage of food items, petroleum products and vegetables in the city, sources here warned Thursday.

Thousands of trucks, blocked outside the entry points, are waiting for the green signal from the Islamabad authorities to supply the goods.

The Ministry of Interior and the Islamabad Administration has resorted to harsh preventive measures by blocking the entry of all heavy vehicles into Islamabad.

Instead of resorting to proactive policing and administrative measures like enhancing the intelligence collection, capacity building of the Special Branch Islamabad, and better counter terrorism measures, the administration has stopped the entry of heavy vehicles into Islamabad and all trucks, dumpers, oil tankers, mini-trucks of the catering firms, milk carriers etc. are stranded on various entry points of Islamabad and the chief commissioner and inspector-general has told the police and administration not to allow any such entry without proper permits.

However, it has not been decided yet that who will issue permits to thousands of heavy vehicles visiting Islamabad for various essential services like construction, petrol pumps, bakeries etc.

One senior police officer commented that instead of going to the origins of the massive suicide bombing of an upscale hotel in Islamabad last week that killed 60 and injured over 270, the Islamabad administration has resorted to crackdown against trucks and dumpers. “This is like medieval administration and highly condemnable,” he said.

“The next time they will impose crackdown against cars if a car is used in an explosion. The interesting aspect is that the police posts are solely focusing on the trucks and dumpers and not paying any attention to the other vehicles that can be the potential weapon of transportation of next bomb,” he said.

The result is that all construction and business activity in Islamabad has come to stand still, perishable items like food and milk is spoiling on the police pickets and citizens are suffering.

Despite the new measures by the Islamabad administration and police, on average one big bomb on an average has exploded in Islamabad over the last four years, and every time a new modus operandi has been used by the terrorists.

Many people question the capacity of the Capital Development Authority to deal with such emergencies as it failed during the fire in Shaheed-e-Millat Secretariat, the collapse of Margalla Towers, and now the Marriott Hotel blast.

One victim of the blast when approached commended, “more people died due to the state inaction than the actual bombing impact. They died due to the inefficiency of the CDA fire brigade and rescue capacity.”

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Ahmad Ali, when contacted, said a comprehensive preventive strategy has been constituted to avoid such violence.

“Checking heavy vehicles before their entry into Islamabad is part of the strategy,” he said, adding that the trucks will be allowed to enter after checking the credentials of drivers, departures and receivers.

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