Red alert sounded in Islamabad airports

Islamabad, Sep 25 (PTI) Five days after the deadly
Marriott Hotel bombing, a red alert was Thursday sounded at
the airport here and passenger lounges evacuated following a
threat of a possible suicide attack.

Security agencies, which are on high alert, went into
a tizzy and evacuated lounges and parking areas minutes after
airline officials received a phone call warning of an attack.

Enhanced safety measures were also taken at all
airports across Pakistan after an anonymous caller telephoned
an official at the airport in the southern port city of
Karachi warning that airports in various cities would be
targeted at 12.40 pm, Dawn News channel reported.

Civil Aviation Authority officials were quoted as
saying that they had been alerted by intelligence agencies
that a suicide bomber might target the international airport
named after late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Col Ashraf Faiz, Chief Security Officer, told
reporters that the security status at the Islamabad airport
was upgraded from "high alert" to "red alert".

He said: "We put the airport on red alert and allowed
only passengers and no visitors. The parking (of vehicles) has
been stopped."

Airport manager Ayaz Jadoon said flight schedules were
not disrupted by the security measures. "The situation is
under control. The flights are operating as usual and our
effort was that we should not disrupt the flights," said Faiz.

Security agencies scanned the whole area and a bomb
disposal squad, fire fighters and ambulances were called in by
the airport authorities. However, nothing suspicious was found
during the search, Faiz said.

The capital's international airport has already been a
scene of an attack in February 2007 when a suicide bomber
opened fired near VVIP area of the aiport before blowing
himself up with a hand grenade, injuring three people.

Faiz said the warning about the suicide attack could
have been aimed at creating panic or assessing the reaction of
the authorities to such a situation.

"Maybe it's a diversionary tactic that they
(terrorists) want us to be busy here and (carry out an attack)
somewhere else," he said.

Interior ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters
that there was no suicide bomber within the Islamabad airport
but "the threat still exists".

The airport's entrance was closed and security
enhanced to counter the threat, he said.

"We have enhanced security at all airports across the
country," Malik said.

All traffic to the Islamabad airport was temporarily
suspended. Roads leading to the airport were blocked and
traffic was diverted away from the area. Long queues of
vehicles could be seen on roads going towards the airport