Pakistan Defense News

ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani ambassador to China, Masood Khan, wants to boost exchanges between the militaries in order to “deepen the existing strategic ties and give further push to the all-weather and time-tested friendship between the two countries.” He was speaking at the graduation ceremony July 28 of the 2nd Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC)-Pakistan Air Force Officer Development Programme held in Beijing. The program was organized by the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC), and the AVIC University. It is a one-month course conducted by the university for officers from the Engineering Branch of the Pakistan Air Force. According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, Khan lauded joint Sino-Pakistani projects such as the FC-1 Fierce Dragon/JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, and called for closer ties between AVIC and the Pakistan Air Force. While increased military cooperation might seem to be in Pakistan’s favor, analysts said the situation is...

KABUL: The American-led coalition on Sunday bluntly rebutted an assertion made last week by Pakistan ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman that American forces had on 52 occasions done little over all to stop Taliban militants from using Afghan territory as a springboard for attacks on Pakistani forces in the mountains along the poorly marked frontier, The New York Times reported. The coalition statement was unusual in its directness. Even at the lowest points in relations between Pakistan and the United States, American officials in Afghanistan have usually left direct public criticism of Pakistan to more senior officials in Washington. But with Pakistan increasingly trying to draw equivalence between Afghan Taliban havens in their own country and the presence of Pakistan Taliban factions in Kunar and Nuristan Provinces in northeastern Afghanistan, the coalition pushed back unequivocally on Sunday, offering a reminder of the fraught relationship that the United States and Pakistan ar...

RAWALPINDI: Five more bodies of soldiers were recovered from Gayari sector of Siachen on Tuesday. The total number of recovered bodies has reached 66. According to ISPR spokesman, the rescue teams have recovered five more bodies and they have been shifted to hospital and the process for their identification had started. The spokesman said that NADRA special teams had been engaged to identify the bodies through biometric system. Around 139 soldiers from the Northern Light Infantry Battalion along with six civilians were buried under an avalanche on April 7 in Gayari sector near Skardu. agencies Five more bodies recovered from Gayari Sector

RAWALPINDI: Three more bodies of soldiers were recovered from Gayari sector in Siachen on Wednesday. A total of 52 bodies have been recovered until now. The spokesman of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the bodies have not been identified as yet. Around 139 soldiers from the Northern Light Infantry Battalion along with six civilians were trapped under an avalanche on April 7. app Three more bodies of Gayari soldiers found

Major Amir Azam Shaheed Major Shoaib Shaheed

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is preparing to release about $1.1 billion withheld from Pakistan s military after they agreed this week to reopen supply routes into Afghanistan. The withheld dollars are part of the U.S. Coalition Support Fund to reimburse Pakistan for its support of U.S. counter- insurgency operations, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby told reporters today. Payments were suspended last year amid increased U.S- Pakistan tensions even before Pakistan closed the land routes into Afghanistan in November as a result of an accidental U.S. attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan, which had demanded a U.S. apology for the deaths, agreed to reopen the lines after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said ?we are sorry? in a statement on June 3. ?Several trucks have gone through and this will continue,? Kirby told reporters today. ?The traffic is starting to flow,? he said. Asked if Defense Secretary Leon Panetta agreed with Clinton s statement of ?deepest regrets,...

ISLAMABAD — A Pakistan Army Mi-17 Hip transport helicopter crashed July 11, killing five people. According to the military’s Inter Services Public Relations, the helicopter crashed at Skardu Airport in the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region in the north of the country. In addition to the five dead, three others on board were injured. No cause has been ascertained. The Mi-17 is the Army’s most capable and versatile transport helicopter, and has proved to be highly adept at handling all but the highest of peaks in the more mountainous regions of the country. It has been crucial in providing rotary airlift for ground troops in operations against the Taliban in places like Swat and South Waziristan. Brian Cloughley, a former Australian defense attaché to Islamabad, said, “The loss of any helicopter is a most serious matter for Pakistan. The entire fleet of some 400 is stretched, and the [internal security] situation in the west of the country is most demanding on rotary hours, with t...

TORKHAM, Pakistan — Pakistan is doubling the capacity for NATO trucks at a key border crossing, officials said July 9, to speed up processing for an expected influx of supplies for troops in Afghanistan. Customs officials at Torkham border crossing in the country’s troubled northwest saud that work had begun to expand dedicated parking space for NATO containers. Islamabad agreed to reopen overland routes to NATO convoys on July 3 after a seven-month blockade sparked by a botched U.S. air raid on a border post that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. “After expansion the parking capacity for NATO trucks will be doubled,” said Obaidullah Khan, a customs official at Torkham, the closest border crossing to Kabul. “Prior to the closure the terminal had a parking capacity of 250 vehicles and now we are expanding it to 500.” Khan said work was also underway on two dedicated rooms for customs officers dealing with paperwork for NATO vehicles, to speed up their transit into Afghanistan. The te...

WASHINGTON — Pakistan has agreed to reopen its border to NATO supply convoys into Afghanistan after a seven-month blockade, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said July 3, adding Washington was sorry for the loss of life in a botched U.S. air raid last year. The supply routes have been shut since November, when an American aircraft mistakenly killed 24 Pakistan soldiers, aggravating already difficult relations between Washington and Islamabad. The announcement, following months of negotiations, will come as a relief to the United States and its NATO allies, who need the routes for a planned withdrawal of combat forces from Afghanistan through 2014. During a July 3 telephone conversation, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar “informed me that the ground supply lines into Afghanistan are opening,” Clinton said. Islamabad has long demanded that Washington apologize for the deadly air raid before it would reopen the NATO routes, closed in anger after the U.S. attack. “F...

DoD Reprograms $8B, Pakistan Closure Costs $2.1B Pakistan’s refusal to let NATO access its ports and roads into Afghanistan has cost the U.S. Defense Department more than $2.1 billion in extra transportation costs to move supplies and equipment in and out of the country. The stunning revelation of the exorbitant cost comes as the Pentagon continues to negotiate with Islamabad to regain access to the supply routes. “The good news is that there continue to be those discussions,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during a June 29 briefing at the Pentagon. “There still are some tough issues to try to resolve but, you know, I think the important thing right now is that both sides in good faith keep working to see if we can resolve this.” Pakistan closed the ground route to NATO supplies after a U.S. airstrike mistakenly killed 24 of its soldiers last November. The only other access to land-locked Afghanistan is through the Northern Distribution Network, a series of roads through R...