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Proteas arrive in Pakistan
26/09/2007 11:38 - (SA)
Karachi - Pakistan has deployed dozens of police officers including elite commandos as the South African cricket team arrives for a month-long tour of the country.
South Africa are due to play two Tests and five one-day internationals in the violence-hit Islamic republic. They open the tour with a warm-up three-day match in Karachi from Thursday.
Tight security was seen at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport with policemen surrounding Graeme Smith's men as they left the terminal building in the teeming city of 12 million people.
"We deployed 100 policemen, police commandos and military commandos to create a tight security blanket," senior Karachi police officer Rana Pervez said.
The South Africans were then whisked to their hotel in a heavily guarded convoy.
They are due to hold a press conference later.
It is the first time South Africa have visited the troubled city since playing the quarter-final of the 1996 World Cup. They refused to play here over security fears on their tours in 1997 and 2003.
Security fears have surged in Pakistan after a spate of Islamic militant violence that has left around 270 people dead following the storming of an Al-Qaeda-linked mosque in Islamabad in July.
The nuclear-armed Islamic republic's military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, is also seeking re-election on October 6 in a bitterly contested poll.
Karachi itself was rocked by clashes between pro- and anti-Musharraf activists in May that left more than 40 people dead.
- AFP
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