Dozens of police and elite commandos blocked the mainroadleading to the compound where Musharraf was holed up on the outskirts of Islamabad on Thursday and residents were asked to use another route to go to their homes.
It was getting dark, but the moon was bright enough for me to see two very wide, deep tire tracks in the sand, leading all the way back up to the mainroad.
The twin spires of Basilica of St Anne de Beaupre loom over the low-rise fast-food joints, motels and banks that litter the roadleading to this, one of North America's main sites of pilgrimage.