US efforts to train Frontier Corps hindered by culture, ethinc bonding among Pashtuns

Americans given the task of training the Frontier Corps (FC) in counterinsurgency and intelligence-gathering tactics are facing adverse conditions as the most of the trainees are Pashtuns who are wary of going into battle against a Pashtun-dominated insurgent force.

Lahore, Mar 31 : Americans given the task of training the Frontier Corps (FC) in counterinsurgency and intelligence-gathering tactics are facing adverse conditions as the most of the trainees are Pashtuns who are wary of going into battle against a Pashtun-dominated insurgent force.

Nearly 80,000 personnel are being imparted training by the American advisers, who have been asked to accomplish the task by the end of this summer.

Low wages is another reason why the trainees are less encouraged to get trained. According to the Washington Post, FC soldiers earn an average of 60-70 dollars a month, which is a little more than half of what their counterparts in the regular Pakistani army make, and a third less than what Afghan army troops get.

Zeeshan, a 21-year-old FC deserter, who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals, said: "I didn't know why we were fighting this war ... It was all about following the orders of my senior officers, and that's it."

The FC units, which are poorly equipped and lacked support from the army, have suffered devastating defeats by the Taliban over the past six years. About 300 troops have been killed since 2001, said the US daily.

Low salaries and inconsistent medical evacuation services for wounded troops have also dimmed morale, Khattak said. "Many of our casualties were not warranted. If we had been better equipped, we would not have seen so many casualties," he added.

Muhammad Alam Khattak, the FC's top commander, expressed frustration with a "slow-moving military bureaucracy that has left his troops to fight an insurgency with World War II-era rifles". "It's very difficult, but our force is an old force. We are on a global geopolitical fault line," Khattak told the Post.

A Western diplomat said: "These guys are Pashtuns, so they know the local areas. But there are problems. There's been this kind of historical stepchild relationship with the army. When you have a position that is only manned by five or six [FC] men and it's confronted by a contingent of dozens of Taliban militants, there's not a lot of incentive to stay and fight."

He added: "They've got different levels of equipment, different levels of medevac services than the army. One of the concerns we've heard about is: What happens if we get killed? What happens to our families?"

Sadiq Ali, a former member of the Frontier Corps, reportedly said that he had joined the Corps to help his family financially. But, the meagre wages were hardly enough to persuade him to stay. "No parents would risk their children's lives just for a few thousand rupees a month," Ali said.

ANI