| GEO Pakistan | | Security on high alert for Independence Day | Updated at: 0625 PST, Friday, August 14, 2009
 ISLAMABAD: Police and other law-enforcement agencies on Thursday put security on high alert to avert any terror strike on the Independence Day, as the nation is in full swing of arrangements for the Aug 14 celebrations.
Police sources said a heavy contingent of security officials had been deployed at sensitive points in cantonment areas and international hotels in the capital of Islamabad and the garrison city Rawalpindi.
Police high-ups had directed all field officers to stay alert and wear bulletproof helmets and jackets. They said the police were given metal detectors to check people coming close to sensitive buildings like airport, railway station, bus stands, hotels, hospitals and crowded markets.
They said the police would provide special security cover to the places where ceremonies were arranged for the Independence Day. They also said reserve police had been put on alert and could be called in the event of any emergency. Senior police officials urged the people to cooperate with law enforcement agencies and inform the police of any suspicious activity they saw in the city.
As elsewhere, the southern port city Karachi will celebrate the 62nd Independence Day of Pakistan in a befitting manner on Friday with all sensitive places and police installations put under watch.
The day has dawned with a 21-gun salute in the Sindh provincial metropolis, Karachi. Among other celebrations, the cadets of the Pakistan Naval Academy will mount the guard duty at the mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Pakistan's Independence Day is observed on Aug 14, the day on which Pakistan became independent from the British rule in 1947. |  |
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