ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is putting the military in charge of security in the capital, Islamabad, in case Pakistani Taliban militants try to launch attacks in response to an army offensive against them, the government said yesterday.
The military launched an offensive against the militants in their strongholds in ungoverned stretches of the northwest, along the Afghan border, last month.
The Pakistani Taliban, fighting to bring down the state, have vowed to retaliate.
“The federal government has requisitioned the services of the Pakistan army in aid of civil power in Islamabad,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The army had been put in charge of the capital for 90 days from August 1 “to pre-empt any possible blowback of Operation Zarb-e-Azb”, the office said, referring to the offensive.
Pakistan has seen numerous militant attacks since it joined the United States in its “war on terror” after the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.
Terrorism in Pakistan has become a major and highly destructive phenomenon in recent years.
The annual death toll from terrorist attacks has risen from 164 in 2003 to 3318 in 2009 with a total of 35,000 Pakistanis killed between September 11, 2001 and May 2011.
According to the government of Pakistan, the direct and indirect economic costs of terrorism from 2000–2010 total $68bn.
REUTERS
