Pakistan capital under security lockdown before regional SCO summit

Three-day nationalist vacation declared successful Islamabad arsenic Chinese Premier Li Qiang visits for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting.

Pakistan’s superior has been enactment nether a strict information lockdown arsenic Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrives for a four-day sojourn during which helium volition besides preside implicit a determination acme of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Li’s sojourn is the archetypal by a Chinese premier to Pakistan successful 11 years, Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office said connected Monday arsenic Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received Li astatine the airport.

The SCO gathering with 9 afloat subordinate countries – including China, India, Iran and Russia – is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday successful Islamabad. The organisation was established successful 2001 by China and Russia to sermon information concerns successful Central Asia and the wider region.

The SCO participants volition beryllium represented by the premier ministers of China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan arsenic good arsenic the vice president of Iran and the outer affairs curate of India, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

To boost information for the SCO meeting, the Pakistani authorities announced a nationalist vacation successful Islamabad for 3 days, starting connected Monday, with schools and businesses unopen and ample contingents of constabulary and paramilitary forces deployed crossed the city.

Pakistani soldiers volition beryllium liable for the information of the capital’s Red Zone, wherever astir of the meetings volition beryllium held, according to the Ministry of interior. It is besides location to parliament and is simply a diplomatic enclave.

Pakistani service unit patrol Islamabad’s Red Zone connected the eve of the SCO acme [Aamir Qureshi/AFP]

Tensions person mounted aft the main absorption Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) enactment of jailed erstwhile Prime Minister Imran Khan called for a protestation connected Tuesday successful Islamabad if the authorities did not let Khan’s household members, lawyers and doctors to conscionable him successful prison.

Early this month, Khan’s supporters rallied successful Islamabad to propulsion for his release, starring to clashes with information forces.

Islamabad has besides sought to curb each question of Chinese nationals successful the city, citing fears of unit from equipped groups.

On October 6, an onslaught with explosives adjacent Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport killed 2 Chinese nationals. The Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist equipped group, claimed responsibility.

The attacks connected Chinese nationals are apt to fig successful the talks arsenic Li and Sharif pb their respective delegations to sermon economical and commercialized ties and practice nether the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65bn infrastructure concern nether Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Li is besides apt to inaugurate the CPEC-funded Gwadar International Airport successful the southwestern state of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.