FC takes control of Shamsi airbase
1-Quetta - Most of the US forces’ equipment and officials were airlifted
from the Shamsi airbase on Saturday, as Geo News reported that the FC had
taken control of the airbase late in the evening. “Only one American
cargo plane is still parked at the airbase which will transfer the
remaining personnel and equipment,” Geo TV quoted sources as saying.
Around 12 to 14 military air transporters made sorties to airlift US
equipment and 27 of 59 US forces personnel until Saturday. Officials of
the Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies, along with a few Federal
Investigation Agency officials, reached the airbase to supervise the
evacuation process.
2-US to submit report on Shamsi Airbase vacation
ISLAMABAD - The US has to complete its vacation process of Shamsi Airbase
before December 11 and has to submit report to the Defence Ministry in
this connection, sources said Friday.
While, majority of the assets were shifted from the airbase to
Afghanistan and other locations, the sources added, without specifying as
what was actually shifted to other locations.
However, according to some reports, the US has shifted five drone
aircrafts to Afghanistan, and United Arab Emirates took control of the
airbase. The UAE built Shamsi Airbase in Balochistan for landing of small
aircrafts and then the US had extended the runway for heavy aircrafts.
After NATO attacks against two posts in Mohmand Agency along Afghan
border at the dawn of November 26, when 24 Pakistani soldiers were
martyred and over a dozen others injured, Pak-US and Pak-NATO relations
became tense.
Pakistan called a meeting of the Defence Cabinet Committee (DCC) that
decided to block NATO supply to Afghanistan via Pakistan besides ordering
US to vacate Shamsi Airbase, the operative station of US drone in the
region.
The committee also decided to boycott the long-awaiting international
conference on future of Afghanistan that was held in German city of Bonn
in the first week of the current month. The DCC decisions were endorsed
by the Parliamentary committee on National Security that also decided to
call in joint session of the parliament over the issue.
After the NATO attack Pakistan and US were propagating their own accounts
of the incident and the former also called in its diplomats from various
countries for consultation over the situation emerged after raids against
Pakistani posts. Sources said, “In fact meeting of the diplomats was held
for reviewing Pakistan’s policy in this connection”.
Pakistani authorities had fixed December 11 as the deadline for vacating
the airbase.