Pakistan deployed thousands of police and troops to protect the Olympic torch yesterday as it started the latest leg of its protest-hit journey around the world before the Beijing Games in August.
The heavy security in the capital Islamabad comes as Pakistan tries to protect China, its closest ally, from further embarrassment at the hands of pro-Tibet and human rights demonstrators.
Pakistani authorities also cut back the torch’s route at the last minute, citing security fears sparked by an unprecedented wave of al-Qaeda and Taliban suicide bombings that has killed 1,000 people in the past year.
Pakistanin President Pervez Musharraf, who returned from a week-long visit to China early yesterday, and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani were due to lead the ceremony at the city’s main stadium watched by 8,000 hand-picked guests.
The original plan was to parade the torch from the white marble presidency building and along Islamabad’s leafy main boulevard, but the entirety of the event was due to be held behind closed doors at the arena.
Army contingents, paramilitary troops and elite police commandos were to guard the flame as it arrived at Jinnah Stadium, Pakistan Sports Board official Lieutenant Colonel Baseer Haider Malik said.
Officials said there was no indication of a specific threat but security was tight because of the presence of Muslim separatists from China’s northwestern Xinjiang region in Pakistan’s troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
“A little over 3,000 policemen including reinforcments from Punjab province have been deployed, in addition to paramilitary and regular troops to secure the event,” Islamabad police chief Shahid Nadeem Baluch said. “We are doing whatever possible to ensure everything goes trouble-free.”
Pakistan Olympic Association chairman Arif Hassan said on Tuesday that the “entire event was re-scheduled due to security threats. We had to re-schedule the program to ensure full security to the torch relay and its participants.”
In related news officials said yesterday that Australian police had been give extra powers to ensure there is no violence when the torch goes there, while the southern Chinese territory of Hong Kong announced it was changing its torch route.
The torch’s next stop will be the Indian capital New Delhi today.
Indian police detained dozens of pro-Tibet demonstrators shouting “We Want Justice, Stop Killing in Tibet” on Tuesday in New Delhi as they carried an “independence torch” along the route planned for the relay.
In related news, Chinese guards traveling with the Olympic torch could face arrest if they lay hands on any protesters during its visit to Australia’s capital next week, an official said yesterday.
Ted Quinlan, chairman of the Canberra relay task force, said the so-called torch attendants will have no responsibility for security.
“The answer is no they won’t and, in fact, they could be subject to arrest in fact if they laid a hand on somebody,” Quinlan told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
Track-suited Chinese officials recruited from paramilitary police forces have been accompanying the flame. The guards were criticized for heavy-handed tactics in London and Paris.
Australian Attorney-General Robert McClelland said security in Canberra will be the responsibility of the Australian Federal Police.
“The only role that they — the Chinese officials — will play will be to light the torch should it be extinguished,” McClelland said.
Australian police have been given tough new powers for the relay next Thursday, said Jon Stanhope, chief minister for Australian Capital Territory, where Canberra is located.
Police will be authorized to stop and search people along the relay route and ban them from carrying “prohibited items” such as “balls, eggs, paint bombs and any similar item that is likely to be used as a projectile,” he said.
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