IN THE wake of a call for protests on Kashmir by Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan government is learnt to have decided to give “presidential-level security” — its highest security — to Home Minister Rajnath Singh when he visits Islamabad to attend the SAARC home ministers’ meeting on August 3-4. The “presidential-level security” means deployment of about 200 personnel, including commandos from Pakistan’s elite special forces. Top sources told The Indian Express that the decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by PM Nawaz Sharif to discuss security arrangements. The meeting was attended by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, National Security Advisor Nasser Khan Janjua, ISI DG Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Intelligence Bureau DG Aftab Sultan and other senior government officials. Normally, a visiting home minister would have got ministerial-level security. But, South Block, which got wind of the protests being planned on Kashmir, worked the phones with their Pakistani counterparts and asked for “elevation” of security. According to sources, Singh is likely to stay at a luxury hotel in Pakistan’s high security zone where the Prime Minister’s Office, foreign ministry and diplomatic enclave are located within a kilometre’s radius. The SAARC home ministers’ meeting is also likely to take place at the same venue, which has a three-layer security. Sources said two additional layers of security, along with snipers and aerial cover, is being considered. The threat perception increased as Hafiz Saeed warned of a countrywide protest in Pakistan by the JuD. “I want to ask the Pakistani government, will it add insult to injury to the Kashmiris by welcoming Rajnath, who is responsible for the killings of innocent Kashmiris,” he said in a statement. “If Singh comes to Islamabad on August 3, the JuD will hold countrywide protest to tell the world that the Pakistani rulers may have compulsions to receive Kashmiris’ killers, but the people of Pakistan are siding with oppressed Kashmiris,” he said.
