Fresh threats: Interior ministry alerts G-B of possible terrorist attacks

Home dept tightens security around Gilgit and along KKH.

GILGIT: The Ministry of Interior has sent a security alert to the government of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) warning that terrorists may target the region’s Ismaili community and foreign tourists.

“A terrorist organisation is planning to carry out a vehicle-borne suicide attack at a prominent venue in Gilgit,” reads the statement which has been addressed to G-B’s inspector general of police (IGP) and chief secretary. “The likely targets are the Ismaili community or foreigners staying in the city.”



The letter adds that the attack has been planned by an outfit based in Miranshah, North Waziristan with instructions to suspects in Gilgit to undertake the task.

In the light of the alert, the G-B home department has written a letter to the IGP asking him to guard all routes leading to major hotels.

The department has also urged the police chief to take foolproof security measures in Gilgit and elsewhere in the region to thwart any attack on religious communities and foreigners.

Following the alert, security has been tightened in the city with law enforcement agencies checking people entering G-B.

“We are keeping a close watch on the situation and the security plan for the region is being revisited daily,” said Home Secretary Attaur Rahman while talking to journalists on Tuesday.

Rahman said security has also been beefed up along the Karakoram Highway (KKH) to ensure safe passage.

In June 2013, terrorists massacred 10 foreign mountaineers and their Pakistani guide at the Nanga Parbat base camp.

In August that year, an SP and an army colonel and captain were killed in Chilas in a deadly ambush. The officials were investigating the Nanga Parbat incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2014.