Olympic torch arrives in Pakistan amid tight security

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan launched a massive security operation on Wednesday to protect the Olympic torch as it starts the first Asian leg of its protest-hit journey towards the Games in Beijing. Thousands of troops and police will guard the torch relay in Islamabad in a bid to protect China, the nuclear-armed nation's closest ally, from further embarrassment at the hands of pro-Tibet and human rights demonstrators. Pakistani authorities also slashed the torch's route at the last minute, citing security fears sparked by an unprecedented wave of Al-Qaida and Taliban suicide bombings that has killed 1,000 people in the past year. The flame touched down at a military airbase near Islamabad from Oman in the early hours of Wednesday and will be transported to the capital's main Jinnah Stadium at around 2 pm (0900 GMT). The original plan was to parade the torch down from the white marble presidency building and along Islamabad's leafy main boulevard, but the entirety of the event will now be held behind closed doors at the stadium. President Pervez Musharraf is due to return from a trip to China on Wednesday to attend the ceremony, while Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who heads a new government that is hostile to Musharraf, is also set to be there. Senior Pakistan Sports Board official Lieutenant Colonel Baseer Haider Malik said that the security for the event would be the same as Pakistan normally provides to visiting heads of state. "Army troops will be at the outer cordon, but I cannot give their number," along with police," Malik said, adding that the arrangements were made because of the "overall security situation" in the country. He said "no special threat" had been received ahead of the flame landing. But Pakistan Olympic Association chairman Arif Hassan said on Tuesday that the "entire event was re-scheduled due to security threats. We had to re-schedule the programme to ensure full security to the torch relay and its participants." He said that "keeping in view the law and order situation which was experienced in the past one year and the blasts and explosions," Pakistani authorities had chosen the shortest of three possible routes. Musharraf on Monday condemned the earlier pro-Tibetan protests on the tour. "There is no one in Pakistan, not one man, who would like to do anything against the interests of China," Musharraf told students following a speech at a Beijing university during his China visit. Pakistan and China are close political, military and commercial allies. But two militant attacks last year targeted Chinese workers and officials say that some Muslim separatists from China's northwestern Xinjiang region are hiding out in Pakistan's troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.