Pakistan in Retreat: Withdraws 1200 Troops from Quetta
Quetta, Pakistan (AHN) - Pakistan’s government has withdrawn most of its Frontier Corps federal paramilitary force from province checkposts in the troubled southern Balochistan provinces of Quetta and Gawadar. Local police there will take over responsibility for maintaining law and order in those two cities.
However, the FC will remain in the North-western tribal areas for now, until militancy is brought under control there and people feel safe, the commander of the Peshawar-based Pakistan army corps, Lt Gen Mohammad Masood Aslam, said on Sunday, according to local media reports.
FC withdrew over 1,200 personnel from checkposts in Quetta and Gawadar on Sunday.
“Now, FC personnel have been replaced with police forces. Police will control law and order in the areas,” an FC spokesman told the Pakistan Times.
However, not all FC troops have been withdrawn from southern Balochistan province. Officials told Pakistan’s Dawn news that FC troops will remain in some places. Those include sensitive installations in troubled area such as Dera Bugti and Kohlu where the FC will protect such things as the Sui gas plant and its pipeline that supplies natural gas to the country.
The move was ordered by the federal government and is designed to reduce tensions in those areas for the purpose of paving the way for a for an All Parties Conference on the issues being faced by people in the province, Pakistan’s Daily Times reported Monday.