Tight security for Musharraf in Karachi

Pakistani law enforcement agencies plan to throw an unprecedented security ring around President General Pervez Musharraf when he arrives in Karachi today to participate in an information technology exhibition, police sources.

From today, the authorities have banned parking of vehicles on more than 10-km patch of the Sharea-e-Faisal connecting airport with rest of the city for three days.

This is for the first time in Karachi's history that parking has been banned on this vital road, which passes through key residential and commercial neighbourhoods.

The tougher security arrangements came following last month's arrest of four militants, who confessed to a failed plot to assassinate Musharraf during his visit to Karachi on April 26.

The extremists, belonging to an unknown group called Harkatul Mujahideen Al Alami, parked a vehicle packed with explosives on the main Sharea-e-Faisal from where Musharraf's motorcade had to pass. But luckily the explosives failed to detonate.

This will be Musharraf's first visit to his home city since the arrest of the conspirators in early July.

A senior police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said more than 4,000 police and paramilitary Rangers personnel will be deployed on the route of Musharraf's motorcade.

Security officials will be posted on rooftops of key residential and commercial buildings at the Sharea-e-Faisal, he said.

All security agencies in Karachi had been put on high alert.

Musharraf is visiting Karachi to participate in the international information technology exhibition which starts today. Hundreds of foreign and Pakistani delegates are participating in the exhibition aimed to attract investment in this sector.

The police official said that security has also been beefed up around key hotels where foreign participants of the conference are staying.

Intelligence agency officials say one of the absconding members of the Harkatul Mujahideen Al Alami, in a letter to security officials, has threatened that his organisation would carry out more attack on Westerners and their Pakistani aides.

The group is a dissident faction of the outlawed Harkatul Mujahideen, which is one of the key militant groups waging a bloody secessionist war in the Indian part of Kashmir.

Pakistan's military-led government, a key ally of the United States in its war against terrorism in neighbouring Afghanistan, has been shaken by a series of deadly terrorist strikes by suspected militants on Westerners, government officials and the country's Christian minority.

The militants are outraged over their government's decision to side with the United States.