'Terror group plans rocket attack on Pakistan's capital'

Islamabad, Jan 31: A terrorist group has plans to carry out a rocket attack on the Pakistani capital similar to the one against an elite military academy in the garrison town of Abbottabad, a top police official has said.

Islamabad police chief Bin Yamin Khan said the city was facing the threat of an attack like the one on the Pakistan Military Academy on January 27 but comprehensive security measures had been put in place to counter such an assault.

The terrorist group could carry out the rocket attack from the Margalla Hills that overlook Islamabad, The News daily quoted its sources in security agencies as saying.

The areas under the Secretariat and Kohsar police stations in the heart of the city had been declared the most sensitive and under-threat regions, the sources said.

The Islamabad police chief chaired an emergency meeting yesterday evening to review the security situation.

Khan said helicopters were being used to conduct comprehensive surveillance of the Margalla Hills and other sensitive areas.

The threat to Islamabad came to light after intelligence agencies nabbed two terrorists who were involved in the attack on the Pakistan Military Academy.

The two men, who were nabbed during a crackdown in Taxila, disclosed that they had plans to target sensitive buildings in Islamabad from the Margalla Hills, The News reported.

The terrorists told investigators that there could be some terrorists hiding in the jungles of the Margalla Hills to execute the plan.

The daily reported that Islamabad had received three threats of rocket attacks since the assault on the military academy in Abbottabad.

Stringent security measures were put in place in the federal capital to prevent such an attack and paramilitary troops from the Pakistan Rangers and Frontier Corps were directed to assist the civil administration.

During the attack in Abbottabad on January 27, militants fired nine rockets at the town located 120 km from Islamabad.

Two rockets hit the outer wall of the Pakistan Military Academy, which is located near a compound where Osama bin Laden lived for five years, while others landed in residential areas.

There were no casualties in the attack.

PTI