London: Britain is building a training
camp for Pakistan`s paramilitary Frontier Corps to help in the
fight against the Taliban in the lawless border area with
southern Afghanistan, a TV news channel reported on Friday.
The daily reported that Britain also planned to base
24 army trainers at the camp in the south-western province of
Baluchistan for a three-year stint from August next year, when
construction is due to finish.
The British personnel would work alongside six US
trainers at the camp, which is designed to house 550 people,
the newspaper reported, quoting a senior official at the
British High Commission in Islamabad.
The camp will train 360 Frontier Corps soldiers at a
time, on 12-week courses, the official said.
The report said the plan was politically sensitive
because the British and US trainers will be the first foreign
forces formally stationed in Baluchistan since Pakistan`s
independence in 1947, although US special forces operated
there during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The British official emphasised to the Times that
British and US personnel at the camp would conduct only
"conventional military training" and would not operate
alongside Pakistani forces outside its confines.
Bureau Report
