ISLAMABAD: Security alert was issued in Islamabad this noon, prompting law enforcement agencies to evacuate most of the government buildings and search for suspected terrorists.
Buildings, five-star hotels as well as the office of Election Commission of Pakistan were evacuated for searching by the law enforcement agencies, ARY News reported.
Analysts believe that the move could be a part of combing operations announced by the Pakistan Army couple of days ago.
The military leadership approved a comprehensive plan for carrying out ‘combing operations’ to preempt potential sleeper cells and hideouts of terrorists while simultaneously enhancing the reach of local and provincial law enforcement agencies.
The decision to this effect was taken during the corps commanders meeting chaired by Army Chief General Raheel Sharif. The forum was briefed in detail about internal and external security situation of the country.
Combing operations are relatively different from intelligence-based operations, where security forces acted on specific intelligence information about a terrorist threat.
The combing operations would be led by the army, but would involve different security forces, including civilian law enforcement agencies.
Earlier, it was reported that military has already done its mapping of trouble spots to launch combing operations. “These would be scattered operations involving large force size.”
