ISLAMABAD - Six Afghan National Army cadets arrived in Islamabad Thursday to join Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) at Abbottabad for an 18-month long course in a sign of growing military-to-military contacts, the Afghan embassy said.
This is the first ever group of Afghan National Army cadets that will attend the PMA.
Afghan Ambassador Janan Mosazai welcomed the cadets at the embassy of Afghanistan in Islamabad upon their arrival from Kabul.
“These six young cadets, selected from among the best in Afghan National Army, represent the steady and solid quantitative as well as qualitative growth and development of Afghanistan’s national security and defence forces over the past decade. They take great pride in providing security to the Afghan people and defending the country against external threats, and who in return enjoy the strong backing and support of the entire Afghan nation,” said Ambassador Mosazai.
The arrival of the six Afghan cadets coincides with a six-day visit to Pakistan by a high-level five-member Afghan military delegation led by Maj-Gen Nematullah Khushiwal, Director General of Training, Education and Doctrine, Afghan National Army.
“The induction of these young Afghan cadets at the Pakistan Military Academy is an important step in both countries’ efforts to strengthen, broaden and deepen security and particularly military-to-military relations and cooperation in all areas,” the Afghan ambassador said.
Ambassador Mosazai wished the cadets success in their rigorous training at PMA over the next year and a half.
Highlighting their role as ambassadors of their country in their own individual right, Ambassador Mosazai asked the cadets to establish close and long-lasting ties of professional and personal friendship with their Pakistani counterparts as well as with students from other friendly countries attending PMA.
Former President Hamid Karzai had long opposed Afghan forces training in Pakistan in spite of Pakisran’s repeated requests. Army Chief General Raheel Sharif had offered training to Afghan forces during his visits to Kabul.
Afghan troops kill 18 militants near Pak border
At least 18 militants were killed in a gun battle in a mountainous district of Afghanistan near Pakistan, police said on Thursday, in the latest fighting in the region since a Taliban massacre of school children in the nearby city of Peshawar late last year.
The operation was in rugged Nangarhar province, where Osama bin Laden once had a base in the Tora Bora cave network and which has been the focus of air strikes in recent months.
Since the Peshawar attack in December, Afghan forces have stepped up operations against a Pakistani division of the Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the school killings and has bases in Afghanistan.
Azrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, a spokesman for Nangarhar’s police chief, said 26 militants were injured and four captured, including three Pakistani citizens in the fighting that ended on Wednesday. One Afghan policeman was killed.
During the operation Afghan forces seized a cache of weapons and explosives from the insurgents, Mashriqiwal said.
“If we notice any insurgent activity in any district of Nangarhar, we are ready to launch operations against them,” Mashriqiwal said.
The fighting was in Nazyan district, which borders Pakistan’s tribal areas near Peshawar.
The Afghan Taliban on Wednesday said they had shot down a US Chinook helicopter, killing and wounding dozens of Afghan troops in Nazyan district during “an offensive by the puppet forces”. The report was denied by US military officials.