S Asian leaders fly into huge security net
AFP, Islamabad
A massive security net was thrust around Islamabad airport as South Asian leaders began arriving yesterday for a seven-nation summit in the wake of two attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf. The 12th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) runs from today to Tuesday. The airport was closed for two days to all commercial flights and the 13km road to the city was flanked by gun-toting troops, police commandos and plain-clothes officers. The Prime Ministers of Bhutan and Nepal, Lyonpo Jigme Yaeser Thinley and Surya Bahadur Thapa, landed just after 9:30 am (0130 GMT) to a brief ceremonial playing of their national anthems. With sirens blaring, the leaders of the neighbouring Himalayan kingdoms were whisked off in waiting limousines escorted by a convoy of army jeeps fitted with machineguns. Surveillance helicopters flew overhead. Armed soldiers holding sniffer dogs prowled through airport lounges as journalists were subjected to special checks by security officials who scanned their equipment with metal detectors. Police have set up special barricades at key intersections and no one was allowed to stay on bridges along the road to Islamabad. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga are due later Saturday. Vajpayee, making his first trip to Pakistan since 1999, will have his own 'Black Cat' commandos and travel in bulletproof cars specially airlifted from India, officials in New Delhi said. Vajpayee's February 1999 trip to the eastern city of Lahore to launch a cross-border bus service was marred by massive protests by Islamists. His national security adviser Brajesh Mishra flew into Islamabad on Friday, a day ahead of his scheduled arrival with Vajpayee. Musharraf narrowly survived a suicide bomb attack on Christmas day in Rawalpindi neighbouring Islamabad when two attackers rammed explosives-laden vehicles into his convoy, killing 15 people and injuring 45 others. The attack came just 11 days after he narrowly missed being killed in a bomb ambush as his convoy passed over a bridge. Authorities have closed roads between the Convention Centre venue of the summit and two five star hotels where delegates are staying, banned protest rallies and closed the city's schools and colleges for the Sunday to Tuesday summit. Around 10,000 police and paramilitary troops are manning security in the city dotted by dozens of check posts and troops are manning anti-aircraft guns in hills overlooking the city.
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