New Delhi: Pakistani authorities are all set to shut down Islamabad ahead of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit amid recent militant violence and political unrest. India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will be among senior regional government officials attending the two-day conference on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the weeks leading up to the summit, Pakistan’s authorities have cracked down hard on dissent, banning an ethnic nationalist movement and introducing new laws that restrict protest in the capital. They have also arrested hundreds of supporters of jailed opposition leader Imran Khan who attempted to march in Islamabad earlier this month. A deadly attack on a convoy of Chinese engineers in the mega port city of Karachi last week has also deepened security fears in a country where separatist groups routinely target Chinese nationals. Islamabad has authorised the deployment of troops on the streets for the duration of the summit, India Today reported.
Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst and executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies, said the meeting holds great significance for a country that’s “not seen as safe”.
“The government claims to have made elaborate security arrangements and understandably so because it has to make sure that the event passes off peacefully without any untoward incident,” he told AFP.