Valley
Plans to deploy 30,000 security forces for BIMSTEC Summit
The government is preparing to deploy around 30,000 security personnel, including officials from the National Intelligence Department, to guard the 4th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation(BIMSTEC) Summit scheduled for August 30 and 31 in Kathmandu.Sanjeev Giri
The government is preparing to deploy around 30,000 security personnel, including officials from the National Intelligence Department, to guard the 4th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation(BIMSTEC) Summit scheduled for August 30 and 31 in Kathmandu.
To ensure security for the high-profile event, the Nepal Army will take charge of the central command and coordinate with the Nepal Police, the Armed Police Force and the National Intelligence Department (NID).
A Home Ministry source told the Post that apart from the NID officials, the plan is to deploy 8,000 personnel from the Nepal Army, 13,000 from the Nepal Police and 6,000 from the Armed Police Force.
Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs Ram Krishna Subedi said that the security and transport sub-committee, headed by Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, is sketching a detailed security plan in coordination with all the security forces. “We will lock the plan once the location and the schedule of the Summit is finalised,” said Subedi.
While the detailed security plan is yet to be finalised, the security measures in Kathmandu have already scaled up. The security forces have increased vigilance in bordering areas while also monitoring the entries from Tribhuvan International Airport. Occupants of the major hotels in the last one month are being observed. Inspection of vehicles plying in the streets of Kathmandu too have tightened up.
Most of the VIP guests will be accommodated in Hotel Soaltee Crowne Plaza in Tahachal Marga and Hyatt Regency in Boudha. The government official informed that a no-fly-zone over these areas will be declared a day ahead of the event. The security base will be located in the Crowne Plaza where the summit will convene and the heads of state and government will reside. The area and the VIP movement route will also be patrolled via air by Nepal Army.
“We are also conducting a threat analysis of the VIPs. The Nepal Police, in close coordination
with their counterparts of the participating nations, has taken a detailed account of the leaders’ activities in the last six months,” said an official involved in the security plan.