The
Frontier Corps (
FC) is a federal paramilitary force recruited mostly by people from the tribal areas and officered by officers from the
Pakistan ArmyThe Pakistan Army is a branch of the Pakistan military that protects the state borders and territories.The Pakistan Army, combined with the Navy and Air Force, makes Pakistan's armed forces the sixth largest military in the world. The Army is modelled on the United Kingdom armed forces and came...
. The FC Stationed in the
North-West Frontier ProvinceThe North-West Frontier Province is the smallest of the four provinces of Pakistan...
(NWFP) and
BalochistanBalochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by geographical area, constituting approximately 48% of the total area of Pakistan. At the 1998 census, Balochistan had a population of roughly 6.5 million. Its neighbouring regions are Iran to the west, Afghanistan and the North West Frontier...
Province, are known as FC NWFP and FC Balochistan, respectively. Both distinct provincial groups are run traditionally by an "
inspector generalIn a civilian or military administration, an Inspector General is a high ranking official charged with the mission to inspect and report on some bodies in their field of competency...
" who is a regular Pakistani Army officer of at least major-general rank, although the force itself is part of the Interior Ministry, not the army.
Strength and mission
With a total manpower of approximately 80,000, the task of these forces is to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order when called upon to do so. Border patrol and anti-smuggling operations are also delegated to the FC. Lately, these forces have been increasingly used in military operations against insurgents in Balochistan and militants in the
Federally Administered Tribal AreasThe Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan are areas bordering Afghanistan, outside the four provinces, comprising a region of some 27,220 km² . The area has Afghanistan to the north-west, North-West Frontier Province to the east and Balochistan to the south...
(FATA).
Organization
Half of the FC is based in tribal areas. The Corps is led by regular Pakistani military officers, who fill all senior command positions and serve for two to three years. "At the soldiers' level [...] they take pride in their units' history", according to Hassan Abbas, an analyst and former subdivisional police chief in the Northwest Frontier Province, but they are seldom promoted to command positions, which are usually reserved for regular Pakistani officers. "Within army circles, few officers look forward to these assignments from their professional and career point of view."
The Frontier Corps should not be confused with the Frontier Constabulary or the
Frontier Force RegimentFor Pakistan's Border Guard see: Frontier CorpsThe Frontier Force Regiment is one of six Infantry regiments in the Pakistan Army. At present, the regiment consists of 52 battalions and has its regimental depot at Abbottabad in the North-West Frontier Province...
. The Frontier Constabulary, a federal paramilitary force which is largely drawn from the NWFP, but also operates in
Punjab ProvinceThe Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the country's most populous region with about 45% of Pakistan's total population. The Punjab is home to the Punjabis and various other groups...
as well, has been gradually merged into FC NWFP since July 2002, whereas the Frontier Force Regiment is a unit of the Pakistani Army formed in 1956 from the amalgamation of three regiments: the Corps of Guides, the Frontier Force Regiment and the Pathan Regiment.
Northwest Frontier
The Frontier Corps in the Northwest Frontier Province (FC NWFP) is headquartered in Balahisar Fort in Peshawar and is led by Inspector General, Major General
Tariq KhanMajor General Tariq Khan, HI is a Pakistan Army general who has been the Inspector General of the Frontier Corps since September, 2008. Before this, he commanded the 1st Armoured Division in Multan from 2006 to 2007 and then the 14th Infantry Division in South Waziristan till 2008...
. The Scouts Training Academy, Mirali in North Waziristan Agency is the primary training institution. The vast majority of soldiers in FC NWFP are ethnic Pashtuns.
Balochistan
The inspector general of the Frontier Corps in Balochistan (headquartered in
Quetta) is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. It is known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan", due to its diversity in plant and animals wildlife. The city has been a major stronghold along the western frontier of the country. It is situated at an average...
) is Major General Salim Nawaz. The organization is divided into 15 units.
In the mid-1970s, the Pakistani government used FC Balochistan to counter the insurgency in Balochistan. Unlike FC NWFP, FC Balochistan is only partly made up of troops from the region it patrols, and the force is unpopular among Baloch militants in the province, where some of the population views it as a group of outsiders who commit human rights violations and use too heavy a hand in operations.
To improve the corps image, it has been involved in construction of schools and hospitals, although as of late 2004, corps installations in the province were routinely attacked by insurgents
Inspectors-General of the Frontier Corps
After independence in 1947 Pakistani IGFC’s are:
- Brig Ahmad Jan, MBE (1950-51)
- Brig K A Rahim Khan (1951-53)
- Brig Bakhtiar Rana, MC (1953-55)
- Brig Sadiq Ullah Khan, M.C (1955-58)
- Brig Rakhman Gul, SQA, S, K, MC (1958-63)
- Brig Sadiq Ullah Khan, MC (1963-64)
- Brig Bahadur Sher, MC (1964-66)
- Brig Mahboob Khan, TQA (1966-69)
- Brig Mahmud Jan, SQA (1969-71)
- Maj-Gen Sherin Dil Khan Niazi (1971-72)
- Brig Iftikhar e Bashir (1972)
- Brig Naseerullah Babar
Major General Naseerullah Babar was born in 1928 in Peshawar, Pakistan. His family is from the Babar tribe of Pashtuns and hails from the village of Pirpiai in district Nowshera. Babar is a former Pakistan Army general, a former Inspector General Frontier Corps and Babar is a senior central leader...
, SJ & Bar (1972-74)
- Brig Ghulam Rabbani Khan, SBt (1974-78)
- Maj-Gen Agha Zulfiqar Ali Khan (1978-81)
- Maj-Gen Mian Muhammad Afzal (1982-84)
- Maj-Gen Arif Bangash
Lieutenant General Arif Bangash was a former governor of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Bangash was appointed in the province on November 11, 1997 on his retirement from the Army and he replaced Maj Gen Khurshid Ali Khan...
, SBt (1984-86)
- Maj-Gen Mohammad Shafiq
Lieutenant General Mohammad Shafiq is a career Pakistan Army soldier who served as the governor of the North-West Frontier Province from 1999 to 2000. He was appointed to that position on 21 October, 1999 by General Pervez Musharraf after he overthrew the Nawaz Sharif government on 12 October...
, SBt (1986-88)
- Maj-Gen Ghazi ud Din Rana, SBt (1988-90)
- Maj-Gen Humayun Khan Bangash, TBt (1990-91)
- Maj-Gen Muhammad Naeem Akbar Khan (1991-92)
- Maj-Gen Mumtaz Gul, TBt (1992-94)
- Maj-Gen Fazal Ghafoor, SBt (1994-97)
- Maj-Gen Sultan Habib (1997-2000)
- Maj-Gen Tajul Haq (2000-03)
- Maj-Gen Hamid Khan (2003-04)
- Maj-Gen Tariq Masood (2004-06)
- Maj-Gen Malik Naveed (2006-08)
- Maj-Gen Tariq Khan
Major General Tariq Khan, HI is a Pakistan Army general who has been the Inspector General of the Frontier Corps since September, 2008. Before this, he commanded the 1st Armoured Division in Multan from 2006 to 2007 and then the 14th Infantry Division in South Waziristan till 2008...
(2008-present)
Note that Brig (later Lt-Gen) Bakhtiar Rana (1953-55) and Maj-Gen Ghazi ud Rana (1988-90) were the only father and son to have served as IGFCs.
Maj-Gen Malik Naveed Has been the most achivable IGFC in history and was the only IG police NWFP and IGFC at the same time
History
The Frontier Corps was created by Lord Curzon, the viceroy of British India, in 1907 as a way of organizing and combining these seven different militias and scouts units in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border (years each were founded in parentheses): the
Khyber RiflesThe Khyber Rifles is a para-military force forming part of the modern Pakistan Army's Frontier Corps. Dating from the late nineteenth century the regiment provided the title and setting for a widely read novel, King of the Khyber Rifles....
(1878), the Zhob Militia (1883), the Kurram Militia (1892), the Tochi Scouts (1894), the Chagai Militia (1896), the South Waziristan Scouts (1900) and the Chitral Scouts (1903).
A British officer of the rank of a
lieutenant colonelLieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
was designated as the inspecting officer until 1943 when the corps was expanded and the commander was given the title
inspector generalIn a civilian or military administration, an Inspector General is a high ranking official charged with the mission to inspect and report on some bodies in their field of competency...
(equal in rank to a
brigadierBrigadier is a military rank, the meaning of which has a considerable variation.-Officer rank:In many countries, especially those formerly part of the former British Empire, a Brigadier is either the highest field rank or most junior General appointment, nominally commanding a brigade...
. The Second Mahsud Scouts (1944) and the Pishin Scouts (1946), were then added to the Frontier Corps as well.
After
independenceThe Partition of India was the partition of British India that led to the creation, on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947, respectively, of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India...
in 1947, Pakistan expanded the force further by creating many new units, including Thall Scouts (1948), Northern Scouts (1949), Bajaur Scouts (1961), Karakoram Scouts (1964), Kalat Scouts (1965), Dir Scouts (1970) and Kohistan Scouts (1977). British officers continued to serve in the FC up to the early 1950s. The government split up the force into the NWFP and Balochistan units, with FC Balochistan responsible for the Zhob Militia, Sibi Scouts, Kalat Scouts, Mekran Militia, Kharan Rifles, Pishin Scouts, Chaghai Militia and First Mahsud Scouts.
In the late 1990s, the Frontier Corps played an important role in eliminating opium poppy cultivation from
Dir-In computing:* An abbreviation for directory .* dir , a shell command.* directory , an operating system command.* Digital Instrumentation Recorder, a magnetic tape format by Sony.-Places and areas:...
district of the North-West Frontier Province, according to a UN advisor who served in the district at the time.
The FP originally was formed under British rule before Pakistan's independence. its traditional role has been to guard the border and curb smuggling.
In 2007, after truce agreements between the Pakistani government and local militants had collapsed, the Frontier Corps, teamed with regular Pakistani military units, conducted incursions into tribal areas controlled by the militants. "The effort produced a series of bloody and clumsy confrontations", according to the
Los Angeles Times. On August 30, about 250 Pakistani troops, most from the Frontier Corps, surrendered to militants without a fight. In early November, most were released in exchange for 25 militants held by the Pakistani army.
Equipment and training
As of late 2007, the force "remains underfunded, poorly trained and overwhelmingly outgunned" in relation to Islamist militants, according to an article in the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
. However the FC has almost single handidly been able to contain militants in the northwest regions of Pakistan and keep open the crucial supply route of Khyber pass.
The FC is often equipped with not much more than "sandals and bolt-action rifles", an anonymous senior Western military official told the
Times in late 2007. At present the FC has been assigned two
AH-1 CobraThe AH-1 Cobra is a two-bladed, single engine attack helicopter manufactured by Bell. It shares a common engine, transmission and rotor system with the older UH-1 Iroquois...
attack helicopters, previously of the Regular Army Aviation Squadron. This compares with Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters equipped with grenade launchers and assault rifles. The FC has previously been provided with night-vision equipment,and custom made armored personnel carriers from
HIT TaxilaHeavy Industries Taxila is the backbone of Pakistan's engineering industry for the Pakistan Armed Forces, being a combination of multiple industries that has grown into a large military complex since 1980. It consists of six major production units and their support facilities, staffed by over 6500...
. The U.S. government had budgeted $55 million in 2007 to provide the corps with night-vision equipment and communications gear.
The
headquartersHeadquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The corporate headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
of the Frontier Corps are located in the heart of the
Khyber AgencyKhyber is an agency in the FATA region of Pakistan. Khyber has an area of 2,576 km² and a population, according to the 1998 census, of 546,730. It is subdivided into 3 administrative units: Bara, Jamrud and Landi Kotal...
, which is described as the most dangerous place in the world. The force has been able to withstand a continuous three pronged onslaught from Taliban, Al Qaeda and
Allied troopInternational Security Assistance Force is a NATO-led security and development mission in Afghanistan established by the United Nations Security Council on 20 December 2001 as envisaged by the Bonn Agreement.- Overview :...
incursions from the Afghan border to maintain a strong presence in the region.
United States government support
As of late 2007, Pakistan officials indicated the government will expand the corps to 100,000 and use it more in fighting Islamist militants, particularly Al Qaeda, as the United States government has urged it to do. The decision to upgrade the force came after extensive consultations between the governments and an agreement to start a multi-year effort to bolster it. The governments planned to establish a training center on counterinsurgency tactics.
According to a
Los Angeles Times news article, there is a "widespread" consensus among United States government military and intelligence experts views the Frontier Corps as the best potential military units against the Islamist militants because its troops are locally recruited, know local languages and understand local cultures.
The Corps has also fired occasionally on the U.S.-assisted Afghan Army."
The United States provided more than $7 billion (U.S.) in military aid to Pakistan in the five years through 2007 most of which was used to equip the FC because it is in the frontline of the fight against the Islamist insurgents that constitute the challenge the aid was supposed to counter. The new US Obama policy for Pakistan is seen as a clear victory for the Pakistan Army lobby in the US. The $1.5billion a year aid recently announced with no strings attached will go a long way in seeing that the Frontier Corps stay at the height of their professional abilities due to new equipment and training.
Militias and Scouts
The Militias and Scouts of the Frontier Corps are
NWFP
- Chitral
Chitral or Chatrāl , translated as field in the native language Khowar, is the capital of the Chitral District, situated on the western bank of the Kunar River . The town is at the foot of Tirich Mir, the highest peak of the Hindu Kush, high...
Scouts
- Khyber
Khyber is an agency in the FATA region of Pakistan. Khyber has an area of 2,576 km² and a population, according to the 1998 census, of 546,730. It is subdivided into 3 administrative units: Bara, Jamrud and Landi Kotal...
Rifles
- Kurram Militia
- South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of...
Scouts
- Tochi Scouts
- Mahsud
Mahsud Mahsud Mahsud is a Pashtun tribe in Waziristan, Pashtunistan, a region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Mahsud (Masood) tribe lives in the very centre of Waziristan, surrounded on three sides by the Darwesh Khel Waziris, and being...
Scouts
- Mohmand
Mohmand is the name of a Pashtun tribe, living primarily in northeastern Afghanistan and in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Mohmands follow strict tribal laws, the pre-Islamic "code of honour" known as Pashtunwali...
Rifles
- Shawal Rifles
- Swat Scouts
- Orakzai Scouts
- Khushal Khan Scouts
- Dir Scouts
- Bajur Scouts
- Thal Scouts
Balochistan
- Zhob
Zhob, the capital of Zhob District, is a small city in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Zhob is located on banks of Zhob River at 31°20'32"N 69°26'55"E and has an altitude of 1426m . The city was originally known as Appozai named after a nearby village. During the colonial era it was named...
Militia
- Chaghai
Chaghai is area in Balochistan region in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.* Chagai Hills, a landform in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran* Chagai-I, Pakistan's nuclear test site* Chagai District, a district in Balochistan, Pakistan...
Militia
- Sibi
Sibi city is the eastern entrance to the Bolan Pass and is located in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The city is located at 29°33'0N 67°52'60E at an altitude of 130 metres and is headquarters of the district and tehsil of the same name.. According to the 2001 census of Pakistan the...
Scouts
- Kalat
Kalat or Qalat is a district in Balochistan, Pakistan. It is one of 26 in that province, and encompasses an area of 6,621 km². The population of the district is estimated to be over 400,000 in 2005. The district is governed from the city of Kalat....
Scouts
- Makran
Makran is a semi-desert coastal strip in the south of Balochistan, in Iran and Pakistan, along the coast of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman...
Militia
- Kharan
Kharan can refer to:* Kharan, Pakistan, city in Balochistan.* Kharan District, district of Balochistan, Pakistan* Kharan , former princely state* Kharan Desert* The upper Halil River* Haran, Azerbaijan...
Rifles
- Pishin Scouts
- Dalbandin Rifles (DR-raised 2007-08)
- Maiwind Rifles
- Ghazaband Scouts
- Bambore Rifles
- Loralai
Loralai is the principal city of Loralai District in the northeast of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. It was formerly known as Bori. It is inhabited by Pashtun tribes such as Nasar, Khilji and Luni. Nasars are in majority and Khilji essentiallty belonged to Afghanistan...
Scouts
- Bolan Scouts
- Awaran Militia
- Panjgoor Rifles
- SOW (Special Operation Wing)
See also
- Naseerullah Babar
Major General Naseerullah Babar was born in 1928 in Peshawar, Pakistan. His family is from the Babar tribe of Pashtuns and hails from the village of Pirpiai in district Nowshera. Babar is a former Pakistan Army general, a former Inspector General Frontier Corps and Babar is a senior central leader...
- War in Waziristan
- North-West Frontier (military history)
The North-West Frontier of the Indian sub-continent extends from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west, separating Pakistan's North-West Frontier and Baluchistan Provinces from Afghanistan...
External links