Security drill gives commuters a fright

RAWALPINDI: Commuters in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi had to suffer on Tuesday afternoon as the Metro Bus remained suspended for over three hours while security services conducted a snap anti-terror drill involving the mass transit project. The administration and police of the twin cities made an emergency call to the Metro Bus Authority, with a terror threat. The call triggered the security drill with the authorities evacuating metro busses at the nearest station while large contingents of police and bomb disposal squads (BDS) took up positions at metro bus stations in Saddar, Murree Road and IJP Road. After the buses were evacuated, the security forces conducted a sweep of the buses and the tracks using sniffer dogs. Rawalpindi DC Umer Jahangir told Daily Express that they had suspended the service for the security drill. Meanwhile, Rawalpindi Operations SSP Abdul Qadir Qamar said that they had deliberately withheld giving prior information about the drill so that they could gauge a more real performance of the security officials. He explained that the response time of the police and other security agencies was around 10 to 15 minutes.   

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2018.