VisitCHN

The Pakistan government is putting the southern provinces of Punjab and Sindh on alert amid growing concerns that Taliban militants could spread south.

Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s interior minister, told the Financial Times that his department had analysed 1,148 terrorist threats in the country in the past four months.

“Now, for example, we suspect something similar [to the Swat valley] situation may arise in south Punjab. We are sharing the information with the Punjab,” he said.

Pakistani cities have been rocked by militant attacks over the past nine months that have killed or wounded hundreds, including bombings at five-star hotels in Islamabad and Peshawar, and an assault on a visiting Sri Lankan cricket squad in Lahore as well as several military installations.

Mr Malik also said China had agreed a multi-million dollar loan to Pakistan to help the country set up electronic scanners to check all road traffic entering its main cities to help tackle the security threat.

“We have $280m in soft loans from China,” the interior minister said. “They have given another $10m in grants.”

Mr Malik said China would provide mobile scanners to help patrolling officers to detect arms.

China has been Pakistan’s biggest supplier of military hardware for well over four decades, keeping supply lines intact even when the US and others embargoed military sales to Islamabad.

China has been trying to suppress separatist movements in its own Islamic western region for many years.

Meanwhile, the US Senate this week approved a tripling in annual aid to Pakistan to about $1.5bn a year, including annual military support of $400m.

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