An American special plane arrived in Balochistan on Sunday to airlift American military personnel from Shamsi airbase after the government sought its vacation by December 11.
The government had asked the U.S. to vacate the airbase hours after NATO fighter jets and helicopters bombed two border posts in Mohmand agency near the Afghan border and killed 24 soldiers on November 26.
The U.S. has been using the airbase for nearly 10 years for military operations in Afghanistan. Opposition parties allege that U.S. spy aircraft have also been using the air field for drone strikes in the tribal regions.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. will vacate the airbase by Dec. 11 and Pakistan had sent a formal letter to the U.S. to vacate the airbase.
Sources said that an American aircraft landed at the Shamsi air field Sunday to airlift U.S. officials.
Security men have taken measurers outside the airbase and all roads in the area have been shut on traffic.
“The U.S. plane can transfer American personnel any time later Sunday,” sources said.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Saturday that security personnel had been sent to Shamsi airbase to take security measures during the shifting of the U.S. officials.
The government also closed supply lines for the U.S.-led NATO troops in Afghanistan as a protest to the NATO strikes and had also decided to boycott the Bonn Conference on the future of Afghanistan to be held on Monday.
Several world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Markel, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, called Prime Minister Gilani on phone over the past few days and requested him to withdraw Bonn Conference boycott decision. But Gilani ruled out any change in the decision.
“Pakistan cannot put at risk its own security for Afghanistan,” Gilani argued and also said that he had told President Karzai that Afghan soil was used for attack on Pakistan.
US plane arrives to airlift Shamsi airbase officials
