C'wealth, EU teams voice security fears

While both the Commonwealth and the European Union are planning to send teams to monitor elections in Pakistan in October, security issues are said to be a major concern for both groups.

The recent attack on a school run by Christian missionaries in Murree where many Western children are enrolled as pupils, and a few days later on a church in Taxila, seem to have heightened these fears.

The gunning down of six people at the school is seen as an indication that foreigners, especially Westerners, remain a target for extremist groups who see them as allies of the U.S. engaged in waging a war against Muslims.

A security advisor for the Commonwealth, which hopes to send at least a dozen teams to monitor the polls, is visiting various constituencies across the country to compile a detailed report.

The adviser has met police chiefs in major cities as well as officials of the federal interior ministry.

Apart from the security threat posed to Westerners in particular, mainly from militant extremists, the general law and order situation in the country is also said by police sources to be a matter of some concern to the monitors.

In Karachi in particular, the issue of car snatching is one that is being taken very seriously, given that the vehicles used by the monitors could become a target for such attacks.

A detailed security plan is to be devised to protect international monitoring teams.

While police sources concede that the lack of manpower and the shortage of vehicles will be a constraint, they say that instructions from Islamabad have come in to assist the monitors in all possible ways.

It is believed a EU security assessment team will also visit the country soon to get an idea of the situation. The EU has already said it will closely monitor the elections and that any evidence of rigging will lead to tough economic sanctions being placed against Pakistan.