Pakistan capital under security lockdown before regional SCO summit

Three-day public holiday declared in Islamabad as Chinese Premier Li Qiang visits for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting.

Pakistan’s capital has been put under a strict security lockdown as Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrives for a four-day visit during which he will also preside over a regional summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Li’s visit is the first by a Chinese premier to Pakistan in 11 years, Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received Li at the airport.

The SCO meeting with nine full member countries – including China, India, Iran and Russia – is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Islamabad. The organisation was established in 2001 by China and Russia to discuss security concerns in Central Asia and the wider region.

The SCO participants will be represented by the prime ministers of China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as the vice president of Iran and the external affairs minister of India, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

To boost security for the SCO meeting, the Pakistani government announced a public holiday in Islamabad for three days, starting on Monday, with schools and businesses shut and large contingents of police and paramilitary forces deployed across the city.

Pakistani soldiers will be responsible for the security of the capital’s Red Zone, where most of the meetings will be held, according to the Ministry of interior. It is also home to parliament and is a diplomatic enclave.

Tensions have mounted after the main opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan called for a protest on Tuesday in Islamabad if the