Pakistan to start a month long huge military exercise from April10; Pak Military facing accusation of extra judicial killings in Swat

BY KASWAR KLASRA

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to enhance its professional capabilities, Pakistan Army will be landing in test field under a large-scale field exercise ‘Azm-e-Nau ‘ starting from April 10 to May 13.

According to officials of defense Ministry of Pakistan, India was formally informed by Pakistan ’s high command about launching of this one month long multi-dimensional military exercise.

It is pertinent to mention here that, for the first time in the history of Pakistan ’s military exercises, 20,000 troops from all arms and services, including the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), are set to try the “Modular Method” of field exercises in the Punjab and Sindh after 21 years.

The last large-scale field exercise, Zarb-e-Momin, was held in 1989, when the Army chief was General Mirza Aslam Beg and the prime minister was Benazir Bhutto. Defence attaches from selected embassies would be invited to witness and evaluate these war games.

Inter Services Public Relations of Pakistan told reporters “These Army war games, Azm-e-Nau-3,” will be held from April 10 to May 13, which sees the culmination of a long and deliberate process of war games, discussions and logistic evolution of the concept of warfare that is fully responsive to a wide menu of emerging threats. “The exercise is a concept of validation stage of the operational thought process manifested in the form of tactical, operational and organisational aspects, which would be validated and refined through the lessons learnt,” said Director General Military Training Major General Muzamal Hussain while talking in Rawalpindi to the print and electronic media flown in from all over Pakistan.

However, the general did not reply to a number of questions regarding financial aspect of these field exercises, by giving a definite sum, only saying they would be paid from the Army budget already in place for the fiscal.

According to higher officials of Pakistan Army India is still the major and very serious concern for Pakistan because of its capabilities and till all the political issues between the two nuclear-armed neighbours are resolved, “no nation could afford to lower its guard.”

He said special care would be taken to ensure that there was no harm to civilian areas or crops and the recent PAF exercise on the motorway in no way created any damage while landing and take-off.

Hussain said the Army was not only training in areas of conventional warfare but training in urban terrorism was also included. He added that today, the Army, while trying to reduce the space for war, was being trained to take on threats, not only from its eastern and western borders, but also from urban terrorism.

Briefing the media about upcoming military exercise ISPR said “A special feature of this exercise would be harvesting the technological advancements in intelligence gathering, surveillance, reconnaissance and communication means that have revolutionized the warfare. These shall be optimally leveraged in the forthcoming exercise. These capabilities are expected to act as force multipliers by reducing the fog of war for own troops, obviating enemy surprise and reducing own reaction time. All the available surveillance and reconnaissance assets would be practised/utilised in the exercise to validate their efficacy,” General Hussain added.

At a time when Pakistan Military is set to land in field to test its capabilities, it is facing fresh accusations of carrying out extra-judicial killings and torture. Experts say in case if the allegations were proved it could threaten the US funding for any units singled out for abuse.

It is worth mentioned here that Human Rights Watch (HRW) had briefed the US State Department and congressional officials about the evidence of more than 200 summary executions in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in the past eight months of suspected Taliban sympathisers.

However, Pakistan Military has strongly rejected the allegations and said the valley (once known as Switzerland of Pakistan for its green lush forests) is open to journalists while anybody can go there to conduct investigative reporting there.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan provided a list of 249 suspected extra-judicial killings, from July 30, 2009, to March 22, 2010, saying most of the bodies were found in Swat. It said independent journalists and locals widely believed security forces were behind them.

Officials in Washington said they were taking the accusations of abuse seriously. The Obama administration has raised the matter with Islamabad, the officials said. “We have shared our concern about these allegations with senior Pakistani officials and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said.

There have been reports in the media that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates discussed matter with the Pakistani military and government officials last week.

According to news reports emanating from Washington quoting White House National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer as saying: “We are seeing positive forward motion from our friends” in Pakistan on the issue. Tom Malinowski of the HRW said the pace of extra-judicial killings in Pakistan was ‘not slowing down’. The US is obliged to enforce a law, authored by Senator Patrick Leahy, banning assistance to foreign military units facing credible accusations of abuses, he said.