With Sharif, 8-10 Pak commandos

Sharif’s own security will be over and above the presidential-level security granted to the visiting heads of states and governments.

The sources said Sharif is classified as a “high-value target”, and about eight to 10 elite Pakistani commandos will accompany him.

Nawaz Sharif will be protected by his own Pakistan elite commandos when he arrives in Delhi Monday, sources told The Indian Express today.

The sources said Sharif is classified as a “high-value target”, and about eight to 10 elite Pakistani commandos will accompany him. They will be carrying weapons but only one of them will be with him at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Sharif’s own security will be over and above the presidential-level security granted to the visiting heads of states and governments. He will be granted Z-plus security (non-SPG protectees).

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Sources said Sharif had last come to India in the 1970s as a businessman, before he joined politics. He and his brother Shahbaz had gone to their village in Punjab, Jati Umra. They have given this name to the place where they stay in Lahore too.

Sources said Sharif will meet Narendra Modi for around 30 minutes starting around noon Tuesday. According to the order of protocol, Sharif’s will be the seventh of eight bilateral meetings. These start around 9.30 am, with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, with Bangladesh Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhary the last. Karzai too will bring his own security team, the sources said.

A team from Delhi, meanwhile, is likely to fly to Afghanistan Saturday to review the security arrangements at the Indian embassy in Kabul, consulates at other cities and other important installations. The team will be led by Subhas Goswami, ITBP director general, and comprise senior officials from various agencies.

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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