Pakistan

Temporarily withdrawn: UK military trainers sent back: report

The training scheme began last August and was scheduled to run until at least summer 2013.

Express June 27, 2011

Authorities in Pakistan have ordered the expulsion of a team of military trainers that Britain had sent to help counter the Taliban and al Qaeda, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

The newspaper said the British defence ministry had confirmed that at least 18 military advisers, deployed as part of a £15m programme to train the paramilitary Frontier Corps, have been withdrawn from Pakistan. Some of the trainers have already returned to Britain.

Since the US raid on Osama Bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan has sent home at least 120 US military trainers, most of whom were engaged in training the FC. The British team, a mix of seasoned officers and NCOs, had been stationed at a British-funded FC base near Quetta.

The training scheme began last August and was scheduled to run until at least summer 2013. The ministry of defence hopes to redeploy the team once the tensions abate.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2011.