Peshawar: Authorities in Pakistan`s
northwest today further heightened security arrangements after
receiving an intelligence report that two would-be suicide
bombers with explosives-laden vehicles could target athletes
participating in the National Games.
The alert from the intelligence agencies said the
would-be suicide attackers had entered Peshawar, the capital
of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, where the games began
yesterday, official sources said.
The would-be bombers could target athletes or the
Qayyum Sports Complex, where some of the events of the
National Games are being held, the intelligence report said.
The alert came a day after a woman suicide bomber blew
herself up near a UN aid distribution centre in the restive
tribal belt, killing 46 people.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani skipped the
inauguration ceremony of the games yesterday despite
extraordinary security measures put in place for the event.
Police have barricaded many roads and diverted traffic
away from the venues of the games.
The games were postponed twice during the past two
years due to security concerns linked to militant attacks and
operations being conducted by the army in several areas of
northwest Pakistan.
In a separate development, Pakistani security forces
today destroyed nearly half a tonne of explosives seized from
a car at Hangu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, officials said.
A bomb disposal squad destroyed 420 kg of explosives
in an open field in Doaba area of Hangu district, police
official Asadullah said.
The explosives were destroyed in four controlled
explosions, he said.
PTI
