Pakistan deploys 9500 more troops at Afghan border: Sultan
Pakistan Times Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sent 9,500 more troops to the border with Afghanistan to prevent infiltration by militants intent on disrupting Afghan elections later this month, the army said Tuesday.

Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, now has about 80,000 forces at the border.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said 5,000 additional forces have been deployed in the northwest and 4,500 in southwestern Balochistan province.

The deployment was completed after an Aug. 28 meeting in Islamabad of senior military commanders from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States to review security for the Afghan vote, the country’s next key step toward democracy after two decades of war, he said.

Sultan said Pakistan has also set up between 40 and 50 mobile check posts and sent six transport helicopters and three helicopter gunships to the frontier “to beef up security and curtail activities of miscreants.”

Quick Action Force

Sultan said the Pakistan army’s Quick Action Force would stay in the tribal regions, and authorities have started imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew for people living within about a mile of the border.

A ban has also been imposed on carrying assault rifles, rocket launchers and heavy weapons in tribal regions, he said.●