Taking no chances: Security plan finalized for Zimbabwe cricket team

6,000 policemen to protect the visiting team.

LAHORE: Some 6,000 policemen will provide security to the Zimbabwean cricket team due to arrive in Lahore on May 19.

Operations DIG Haider Ashraf said 3,000 policemen would guard the stadium during the matches. He said 60 Elite Force vehicles would patrol the area.

Ashraf said the visiting team would be escorted to and from the stadium by Elite Force officials.

Security plan for the Zimbabwean cricket tour was finalised in a meeting of senior police officials including the operations DIG, the security SP, the CTO, SP City Division and the DCO at Gaddafi stadium.

PRO to Operations DIG Hammad Raza told The Express Tribune that VVIP state-guests status would be given to the team and all traffic would be suspended on route to the stadium.

He said helicopters would be deployed for aerial supervision while the team travelled from the airport to the hotel.

He said two helipads had been prepared for emergencies. He said one would be stationed near Qaddafi Stadium and the other at the hotel.

He said a four-layered security plan had been prepared for the visiting team.

Raza said entrances and exits of the stadium would be secured by metal detectors, walkthrough gates and barbed wires.

He said visitors would be checked at three points before entering the stadium. He said shops and restaurants at the Qaddafi stadium complex would be closed for two weeks. DCO Muhammad Usman said two Rangers companies had deployed.

PRO to DCO Tariq Zaman told The Express Tribune that a government college within the sports complex would be used for parking space.

PRO to DIG Hammad Raza said that a full dress rehearsal was held by police.

Former law minister Rana Sanaullah, Home Minister Shuja Khanzada, IG Mushtaq Sukhera and Commissioner Abdullah Sumbal were driven from the airport to the hotel in a bus escorted by police.

He said the home minister approved security arrangements.

Zimbabwe is scheduled to arrive on May 19 and play two Twenty20 games on May 22 and 24 and three one-day internationals on May 26, 29 and 31. All matches are to be played in Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.