Army to defend every inch of country: Army Chief Gen Raheel

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif visited the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) located near Kharian and inaugurated the building’s state-of-the-art features to upgrade its infrastructure to accommodate foreign Armies and Pakistan’s own LEAs’ growing demand for training with Pak Army, ISPR said in a statement Friday.

The new facilities have turned NCTC into a leading counter terrorism training facility among the contemporary Armies. COAS was briefed by Lt Gen Umar Farooq Durrani, Commader of the Strike Corps on various aspects of NCTC.

The commander also apprised COAS that so far 231,000 troops of the Armed Forces and 3,483 officers and men of Police and Civil Armed Forces have been trained at NCTC.

He said that besides imparting anti-terrorist training at the centre, five joint exercises have also been conducted at NCTC with friendly countries which include China, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Turkey.

Defence Attache of various countries were also present at the occasion.

The COAS appreciated all those responsible for imparting training at NCTC with a focused approach in enhancing capacity building of LEAs through quality training, making best use of this fully equipped facility.

General Raheel Sharif said that Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism for over a decade and sacrificed a lot but the country has turned the tide against terrorism primarily due to resilience displayed by the entire nation and professionalism of the security forces.

“Let there be no doubt that our valiant Armed Forces have the capability to counter complete threat spectrum,” General Raheel Sharif said while speaking to the audience.

“Inshaallah with the backing of the entire nation we will defend each and every inch of our beloved country, no matter what the cost,” COAS added.