Pakistan Teeters on Chaos

[Manu]

Fear grips foreigners as Pakistan teeters on brink of chaos
By Julius Strauss in Islamabad
(Filed: 21/03/2002)


A GUARD carrying a pump-action rifle stands outside a glitzy new Pizza Hut. But hardly a single Westerner dares venture inside.

At the American International School swarms of police guard students who emerge only to be whisked away in four-wheel-drive vehicles to the heavily guarded compounds where they live.

Fear is gripping Islamabad's expatriates after Sunday's attack on a Protestant church favoured by foreigners.

Since September 11, Pakistan has teetered towards chaos. Political murders and terrorist attacks have become a daily event. In the southern port city of Karachi more than 12 minority Shia Muslims, mostly doctors, have been killed in the past two months.

But so far Westerners living in Islamabad, the tiny, neat capital purpose-built to house the country's central administration, have largely escaped the scourge.

That changed on Sunday when an Islamic militant evaded security guards and lobbed grenades into a congregation of foreigners as they were listening to the sermon.

Five people died, including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat, and more than 45 were injured, 10 of the American and five British. "People are very scared," said an aid worker who has lived in Islamabad for three years. "Until now Islamabad was considered safe."

The Jinnah shopping centre is a favourite destination for Westerners in Islamabad looking for cheap clothes and books or to stock up on food. But yesterday only Pakistanis could be seen, window shopping or drinking cups of milky tea in the pavement cafes.

"Trade here used to be very good," said Nasir, who runs a textile shop. "Now it is terrible. First there was the tension with India and now the attack on the church."

Even before the latest attack considerable security precautions were in place to protect embassies and schools.

The British High Commission is guarded by two sets of thick black and white steel barriers, and huge sheets of bullet-proof glass. The residency is protected by a high wire fence. Pakistani paramilitary guards patrol the area.

At schools attended by Western students pick-ups and drop-offs are run with military precision. Security cameras and outsized spotlights are perched on high walls topped with barbed wire.

"Everybody at home thought I was mad to come here," said Angela Knox, 42, from Harrogate, North Yorks, who is in Islamabad setting up a trading company. "Then the attack on Sunday happened. I'm scared to go out now."

For many expatriates life in Islamabad is now little more than time spent in the office and the home, punctuated by trips to social clubs.

At the United Nations Club, aid workers and businessmen gather in the evening in an English-style bar. The television in the corner is tuned to the BBC.

"Only 10-15 per cent support the militants. But in this country that means 20 million people," said Peter Frazer, a New Zealander working in the construction industry.

Gert-Jan Jongenotter, a Dutchman and one of the few Westerners on the streets yesterday, said: "I left with everybody else after September 11, but came back a month later. I feel terribly sorry for the people killed on Sunday, but I also feel bad about innocent women and children killed by American bombs in Afghanistan."
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