Pakistan frets over security ahead of SCO summit

Pakistan authorities were on Sunday preparing to shut down the capital ahead of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, overshadowed by recent militant violence and political unrest.

The Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will be among senior regional government officials attending the two-day conference on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A deadly attack on a convoy of Chinese engineers in the mega port city of Karachi last week has also deepened security fears in a country where separatist groups routinely target Chinese nationals.

Islamabad has authorised the deployment of troops on the streets for the duration of the summit.

Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst and executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies, said the meeting holds great significance for a country that's "not seen as safe".

"The government claims to have made elaborate security arrangements and understandably so because it has to make sure that the event passes off peacefully without any untoward incident," he told AFP.

The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus -- with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or "dialogue partners".

All visiting member nations are expected to send government heads apart from India, who will dispatch its foreign minister in a rare visit to its neighbour.

The SCO is sometimes touted as an alternative to the Western-dominated Nato military alliance.

While the SCO has a mandate to discuss security, the Islamabad summit is due to focus on trade, humanitarian and cultural issues.

Pakistan is grappling with a broad uptick in militancy coinciding with the Taliban's 2021 return to power in neighbouring Afghanistan, where Islamabad claims attackers are now taking shelter.