Pakistan will deploy army troops for the security of capital Islamabad amid the Taliban threats as the security forces have launched a major operation against them in North Waziristan, the Interior Ministry said Friday.
The army said the security forces have killed nearly 500 local and foreign militants since the operation started on June 15.
As the government expects a reaction from the Taliban, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said that the army troops will temporary be deployed in aid of the police force.
The government has already deployed paramilitary troops in Islamabad in support of the police force following a deadly attack on judges and lawyers in Islamabad earlier this year.
Earlier Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Khan told reporters that troops will perform security duties in Islamabad for three months from August 1st.
"We have called in the army in Islamabad under the Constitutional provisions," Khan said.
The Interior Ministry said that the troops would perform duties at the Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport and other sensitive places in the capital city.
He said the army's contingents from the Rapid Response Force will also perform duties in aid of the police and civil administration.
The troops' deployment comes at a time when a major opposition party has announced an anti-government march on Islamabad on August 14.
The cricketer-turned politician, Imran Khan, said hundreds of thousands of supporters of his Tehrik-e-Insaf party will march in Islamabad.
The interior minister said that the government has not yet decided to allow the march on August 14, noting decision as to whether allow the opposition party to hold their rally in Islamabad will be taken after they file a permission letter.
There have been media reports that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided in principle to approve the deployment of the armed forces in aid of the civil administration to enhance security at sensitive installations across the country.