Pakistan to deploy air defence weapons on Afghan border

Islamabad: Pakistan has decided to deploy air defence weapons on its border with Afghanistan to pre-empt fresh attacks by NATO and allied forces in the wake of a cross-border air strike that killed 24 soldiers, according to a media report today. The decision to deploy air defence weapons was made as the country re-evaluates its strategy for safeguarding its western borders from air raids, the Pakistan Army’s Director General of Military Operations, Maj Gen Ashfaq Nadeem Ahmed, told the federal cabinet and the Senate’s Standing Committee on Defence during briefings on Thursday.[caption id=“attachment_151862” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Paramilitary soldiers patrol the Pakistan-Afghanistan border town of Chaman on 2 December 2011. after Saturday’s NATO strike killed 24 Pakistani troops. Saeed Ali Achakzai/Reuters”]  [/caption] “After the November 26 NATO attack on two military check posts in the Mohmand Agency, we fear an attack from the western border. Hence a decision has been taken to deploy air defence weapons in that region,” a participant of one of the briefings told the Dawn newspaper. Pakistan closed all NATO supply routes and asked the US to vacate the Shamsi airbase by 11 December following the air strike. The DGMO said the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, had given troops full liberty to retaliate to any further attacks without prior approval of the top command. He said that Pakistan border posts were currently equipped with small weapons suitable for fighting insurgents and bunkers had been built. Ahmed said the coordination mechanism between Pakistani and NATO forces had been “completely violated” and there were reasons to believe that the air strike was a “planned attack, and not a mistake”. Ahmed said Pakistan had recalled 19 of its 31 officers from border coordination centres for “consultations”. Another participant of the briefings said Ahmed pointed out that the commander of International Security Assistance Force, Gen John Allen, had met Kayani on 26 November, hours before the border posts were attacked by NATO aircraft. He said when the matter was taken up with Allen the next day, he expressed ignorance. “According to him (Allen) no such attack was planned, giving rise to speculations that certain operations are conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Special Operation Forces on their own and about which NATO and ISAF are kept in the dark,” Ahmed was quoted as saying. Explaining the sequence of events, Ahmed said a post code-named Volcano was first attacked by two NATO helicopter gunships at 12.15 am on 26 November. A nearby check post, code-named Boulder, hit back with 12.7 mm anti-aircraft weapons and mortars after the first attack. Ahmed said the army’s General Headquarters learnt of the incident at 12.35 am. Subsequently, Boulder post too was attacked and all communication with both posts was snapped. Minutes before the disruption, the company commander left for the posts to assess the situation. This officer lost his life after the helicopters re-engaged the posts. Another officer sent later saved his life by sheltering in a bunker when he saw the helicopters. He said the entire operation lasted almost two hours. Ahmed said the two posts were located at a place from where there had been no cross-border infiltration, though militant attacks from the Afghan side had been frequent. The two posts, he said, could not be mistaken for militant havens as the Afghan side had been given all information about the number of Pakistani posts and their locations. The DGMO further said the Pakistan Army believed that NATO was monitoring radio transmissions that night and knew they had hit Volcano post. PTI