Sweaty under their bulky riot gears in the hot and humid weather of Islamabad, thousands of grumpy security personnel deployed at the protest sites for over a week are now exhausted and bored.
The policemen, paramilitary soldiers as well as sleuths of secret agencies who have been guarding the sit-ins of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and cleric Tahirul Qadri-led Pakistan Awami Tehreek are now tired due to long hours of duty and inadequate arrangements for them.
"We are only given a steady diet of rice, nothing else. There is no tea in the evening or lassi for breakfast. But worst of all is the boredom; there is nothing to do here. At least I have a chair, my boys have to lie on the grass all day," a police inspector from Faisalabad was quoted as saying by the Dawn.
"I have served the department to the best of my abilities for several years, but now, when it is almost time for me to retire, they are insulting us," he said.
Most of the policemen, Frontier Constabulary and Rangers personnel feel that their deployment had been a waste of time.
"I am a commando, I am trained to deal with dangerous situations. We were told to defend the capital, but what is this? Our superiors keep on telling us that we have to be ready for action all the time but nothing is happening," an officer from Islamabad complained.
A large number of police personnel protecting the Red Zone, which houses diplomatic missions and other important buildings including the Prime Minister's house, were called in from the Gujaranwala, Faisalabad and Mianwali regions.
Of the near 40,000-strong law enforcement presence in the capital, there are 700 army personnel and around 20,000 policemen from Punjab.
The anti-government protests demanding ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have virtually shut down Pakistan's capital, raising fears of unrest in the country with a history of military coups.
