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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Olympic torch relay began its Pakistan leg under heavy guard and literally behind closed doors on Wednesday.
Security concerns sparked by the violence in earlier runs in Britain, France and the United States prompted Pakistani officials to close the relay to the public and hold it in Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad.
And instead of traversing city streets, the 65 torchbearers ran multiple times around the stadium before handing off the torch to the next runner.
The ceremony, which began around 4:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT), was open to invited guests and the media only, and featured singers and a marching band.
See the torch arrive in Pakistan. »
Dignitaries on hand included Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and newly-elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Heavily armed security officers dressed in camouflage could be seen in the stadium.
Watch highlights of the torch ceremony. »
After the relay was finished, torch-bearers waved to the cheering crowd.
(CNN) -- The Olympic torch relay will be closed to the public when it reaches Pakistan on Wednesday because of security concerns, a Pakistani government spokesman told CNN.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, left, with Chinese President Hu Jintao over the weekend in Boao, China.
Instead of the original plan of holding the relay in public streets in Islamabad, the relay will be held in front of invited guests in a stadium, said Lt. Col. Baseer Haider Malik.
The decision to move the relay behind closed doors came a day after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf attacked the West over the protests that have dogged the event.
Musharraf accused Western leaders and media of politicizing the Olympics by criticizing China's human rights record and its policy in Tibet.
"First of all, we consider Tibet an inalienable part of China," he said in an interview with China Daily on Sunday. If "anyone is harboring or abetting the separatists, we condemn that."
Musharraf is in Beijing to meet with various Chinese officials.
Last week the international leg of the Olympic torch relay set off protests in London, Paris and San Francisco. The relay received warmer receptions over the weekend in Argentina and Tanzania.

NEW DELHI, April 15 -- Thousands of Tibetan protesters from across India have gathered here in the past week in anticipation of the arrival of the Olympic torch Thursday, as nervous government officials tightened security to ward off any threat to the relay run.
Protesters have planned hunger strikes, flag marches and dramatic reenactments of the uprising in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Some youth groups are plotting what could become disruptive street action along the route of what one Indian television channel called the "tortured torch."
"We are being watched by the authorities constantly. Wherever we go, their shadow is following us. So we carry out much of our planning not in meetings, but by cellphone calls and text messages," said Tenzin Tsundue, a 33-year-old activist, waving his two cellphones as he sat under a colorful panoply of flags and banners.
Many members of the Tibetan Youth Congress, a group that publicly disagrees with the cautious approach of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, have gone underground, fearing police surveillance and preventive detention.
India is home to the largest population of Tibetan exiles in the world and hosts the Tibetan government-in-exile. Indian government officials have told China that they will not try to stop Tibetan protests as long as they are peaceful.




On April 9, the Olympic torch relay kicked off at McCovey Cove, San Francisco. Lin Li, the first torchbearer, holds the torch while waving to the crowds.

On April 9, the Olympic torch relay kicked off at McCovey Cove, San Francisco. Lin Li, the first torchbearer, holds the torch while waving to the crowds.


On April 9, the Olympic torch relay kicked off at McCovey Cove, San Francisco. San Francisco is the sixth leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay around the world. The photo shows two torchbearers holding the Olympic torch and running together.

Norman Bellingham (R), Chief Operating Officer of the United States Olympic Committee, gives the torch to torchbearer Lin Li at the McCovey Cove, the start of the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco, the United States, April 9, 2008. San Francisco is the sixth stop of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay outside the Chinese mainland. (Xinhua Photo)

Torchbearer Edwin M. Lee (L), city administrator of San Francisco, and a female torchbearer run with the torch in San Francisco, the United States, April 9, 2008. San Francisco is the sixth stop of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay outside the Chinese mainland. (Xinhua Photo)
09 April 2008
LENGTH: 12:02
TYPE: English/Nat
SOURCE: CCTV
DATELINE:
SHOTLIST:
00:00 Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay Highlight Package
00:30 English-versioned route from
00:37 Chinese-versioned route from
00:41 Display of flame lantern at
01:15 Security guard holding lantern and passing by cameraperson
01:24 Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of BOCOG showing lantern
01:37 Various two torchbearers (one disabled) displaying torch near
03:21 Wide Transamerica Pyramid; pan from Pyramid to
03:55 Tracking shot of flying bird near
04:10 Wide Telegraph Hill
04:16 Moving buses on street
04:37 Pan from sighting-seeing people at the Fishermen’s Wharf to ships
05:02 Tracking shot of cheering crowds with Chinese flag
05:11 Cheering crowds with flag expressing their support to
05:
06:07 Chinese lion and dragon dancing before opening ceremony
06:
06:44 Pan from crowds to LIU JI GANG taking flame lantern and security guards lighting the torch, LIU JI GANG showing the torch to the crowds and passed it to Greenham, chief operation officer of American Olympic Committee and Green passed it over to Li Lin ,former Olympic champion No.1 torch bearer
07:49 Li Lin showing the torch to the crowds
08:06 Mike Candrea and Danielle Dorfman running and holding torch together
08:16 Pan from cheering crowds to Mike and Danielle
08:25 Crowds taking photos
08:33 Jessie Lorenz (blind paralympian) running with torch with her escort Johnathan Newman
08:40 Spectators cheering
08:52 Two torchbearers running
09:02 Pan from close-up of old lady who is crying to flame
09:16 Peter Chi and Susan Roberts running together
09:47 Torch lighting, Jenny Lang and James Dolan showing torch, various Jenny
10:31 Close-up of Jenny
10:37 Various Jenny and James running together and waving to crowds
11:19 Two Chinese holding Chinese national flag
11:25 David Stern, President of NBA, and Tierra Rogers running together, close-up of David and torch
11:41 End-of-day ceremony, pan from camerapersons to torchbearers
11:47 Gavin Newsum, mayor of
11:54 Torchbearers applauding
11:57 Jiang offering torch
Editor:Zhang Xueying
Photograph of Participants in San Francisco Leg of Hitler Styled Torch Relay.
The Olympic flame wasn’t part of the ancient games, and the torch relay didn’t become a fixture in the modern Olympics until the 1936 Berlin Games, when it was part of the Nazi pageantry that promoted Hitler’s beliefs of Aryan supremacy in the world of sports.
And from Reuters
The Olympics first held a torch relay in 1936, the year dictator Adolf Hitler made the Berlin games a showcase of Nazi propaganda. That torch run is captured in one of the most famous — and infamous — Olympic movies ever made, Leni Riefenstahl’s “Olympia.”

On April 9, the Olympic torch relay kicked off at McCovey Cove, San Francisco. San Francisco is the sixth leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay around the world. The photo shows two torchbearers holding the Olympic torch and running together.

Norman Bellingham (R), chief Operating Officer of the United States Olympic Committee, gives the torch to torchbearer Lin Li at the McCovey Cove, the start of the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco, the United States, April 9, 2008. San Francisco is the sixth stop of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay outside the Chinese mainland. (Photo credit: Xinhua)
SAN FRANCISCO - The Olympic torch was rerouted away from thousands of demonstrators and spectators who crowded the city's waterfront Wednesday to witness the flame's symbolic journey to the Beijing Games.

The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it is considering whether to abandon the international portion of the Beijing torch relay in the wake of violent protests in London and Paris.
An IOC official, Director General Urs Lacotte, also said the Olympic organization has been pressuring the Beijing Organizing Committee to redraw the torch relay to limit the potential for violence.
The IOC will step in, Lacotte said, the first time a torchbearer is injured or protests become unmanageable - that is the limit.
"In London, where the torchbearer was accosted by a protester, well, that was very near the limit," he said.
On Monday torch relay organizers in Paris were forced to cut the relay short after protesters repeatedly tried to interfere along the route. Officials extinguished the torch at least three times and moved it along the route within the safety of a bus.
Now, the IOC is holding its collective breath as it awaits the Wednesday start of the San Francisco tour, an event that protesters have vowed to disrupt. On Monday protesters scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled a large pro-Tibet banner.
IOC president Jacques Rogge condemned the protests in London and Paris, which were organized by pro-Tibet supporters and human rights activists.
Rogge confirmed the executive board will review the torch relay when it meets Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Olympic torch was burning bright in San Francisco Tuesday, hidden away in what officials call a "secure" facility, out of the reach of pro-Tibet protesters and human rights advocates.
"We treated it like a head of state visit," airport spokesman Mike McCarron told the San Francisco Examiner.
The flame arrived from France before dawn Tuesday on a specially chartered Air China jet. There were no protesters nearby as it was whisked away to its hidden location, usually a hotel room guarded by Olympic staff.