A massive security net was thrust around Islamabad airport as South Asian leaders began arriving yesterday for a seven-nation summit in the wake of two attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf.
The 12th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) runs from today to Tuesday.
PHOTO: AFP
The airport was closed for two days to all commercial flights and the 13km road to the city was flanked by gun-toting troops, police commandos and officers.
The Prime Ministers of Bhutan and Nepal, Lyonpo Jigme Yaeser Thinley and Surya Bahadur Thapa, landed just after 9:30am to a brief ceremonial playing of their national anthems.
With sirens blaring, the leaders of the neighboring Himalayan kingdoms were whisked off in waiting limousines escorted by a convoy of army jeeps fitted with machineguns. Surveillance helicopters flew overhead.
Armed soldiers holding sniffer dogs prowled through airport lounges as journalists were subjected to special checks by security officials who scanned their equipment with metal detectors.
Police have set up special barricades at key intersections and no one was allowed to stay on bridges along the road to Islamabad.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga are due later Saturday.
Vajpayee, making his first trip to Pakistan since 1999, will have his own "Black Cat" commandos and travel in bulletproof cars specially airlifted from India, officials in New Delhi said.
Vajpayee's February 1999 trip to the eastern city of Lahore to launch a cross-border bus service was marred by protests by Islamists.
His national security adviser Brajesh Mishra flew into Islamabad on Friday, a day ahead of his scheduled arrival with Vajpayee.
Musharraf narrowly survived a suicide bomb attack on Christmas day in Rawalpindi neighboring Islamabad when two attackers rammed explosives-laden vehicles into his convoy, killing 15 people and injuring 45 others.
The attack came just 11 days after he narrowly missed being killed in a bomb ambush as his convoy passed over a bridge.
Authorities have closed roads between the Convention Center venue of the summit and two five star hotels where delegates are staying, banned protest rallies and closed the city's schools and colleges for the summit.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS