XII Corps | |
---|---|
Active | 1984 |
Country | Pakistan |
Branch | Pakistan Army |
Type | XXX Corps |
Role | Maneuver/Deployment oversight. |
Size | ~45,000 approximately (Though this may vary as units are rotated) |
HQ/Garrison | Quetta Cantonment, Balochistan, Pakistan |
Nickname(s) | Quetta Corps [1] [2] Southern Command: 309–311 [3] |
Colors Identification | Red, white and black |
Anniversaries | 1985 |
Engagements | Balochistan Conflict
Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts 2024 Iran–Pakistan border skirmishes |
Decorations | Military Decorations of Pakistan Military |
Commanders | |
Commander | Lt-Gen. Rahat Naseem Ahmed Khan |
Notable commanders | General K.S. Wynne General Abdul Waheed Lt-Gen. Sarfraz Ali Lt-Gen.Asif Ghafoor |
Maneuver Corps of the Pakistan Army | ||||
|
The XII Corps is a field corps of the Pakistan Army currently headquartered in Quetta, Balochistan in Pakistan. [4]
With reserves, paramilitary, and other military formations supporting the XII Corps, the corps has an area of responsibility of Balochistan and oversees its mission of responsibility to protect as an army's regional formation in Pakistan's security apparatus known as the Southern Command.: 309–311 [3]
The Afghan and Iranian immigration to Pakistan and the Afghan Army's military raids in Chaman prompted the Army GHQ to form and raise the military formations to guard its western borders in 1984.: 64 [5] The XII Corps was raised with its HQ in Quetta Cantonment as Lt-Gen. K.K. Afridi becoming its first commander in 1985. [4] [6] Its military engagement has been limited to the Balochistan conflict, which it mainly tackles through the Frontier Corps (paramilitary) and local police department. [4] [7]
Syed Zakir Ali Zaidi served as the corps commander in 1987-89. After handing over the corps to his successor he became president of the National Defence University, from 1 August 1989 to18 June 1990. [8]
Similar to the V Corps in Sindh, the XII Corps has an area of expertise in desert warfare, and oversees security operations together with the local law enforcement, mechanized divisions guarding the nation's desert and dune ranges, and paramilitary to ensure the national defenses of the Pakistan.: 311 [3]
Together with the air force units, naval bases, marines camps, paramilitaries, army reserves, and air forces ranges, the XII Corps forms and leads the major regional formation in Pakistan's security spectrum known as the Southern Command. [7] : 309–311 [3]
The XII Corps has not seen military action against the Indian Army (east) nor the Afghan National Army (west) but tackled counterinsurgency time to time which led to the troop rotations based on the strategic calculations. [4] The XII Corps has receives reinforcement in its missions on war on terror and is based on the known information publicly available:
Structure of XII Corps | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Corps | Corps HQ | Corps Commander | Assigned Units | Unit HQ |
XII Corps | Quetta | Rahat Naseem Ahmed Khan | 33rd Infantry Division | Khuzdar |
41st Infantry Division | Quetta | |||
44th Light Infantry Division | (Gwadar) | |||
Independent Infantry Brigade | (Turbat) | |||
Independent Armoured Brigade | (Khuzdar) | |||
Independent Infantry Brigade | (Gwadar) | |||
Independent Engineer Brigade | U/I Location | |||
Independent Signal Brigade | U/I Location |
Lieutenant-General | Rahat Naseem Ahmed Khan | November 2023 | |
Asif Ghafoor | August 2022 | November 2023 | |
Sarfraz Ali | December 2020 | August 2022 | |
Muhammad Waseem Ashraf | September 2019 | December 2020 | |
Asim Saleem Bajwa | September 2017 | September 2019 | |
Aamer Riaz | October 2015 | September 2017 | |
Nasser Khan Janjua | September 2013 | October 2015 | |
Alam Khattak | October 2011 | September 2013 | |
Javed Zia | April 2010 | October 2011 | |
Khalid Shameem Wynne | April 2007 | April 2010 | |
Shahid Hamid | September 2003 | October 2004 | |
Abdul Qadir Baloch | October 2001 | September 2003 | |
Mushtaq Hussain | October 1999 | October 2001 | |
Tariq Pervaiz | May 1997 | October 1999 | |
Saranjam Khan | 1995 | May 1997 | |
Zia Ullah Khan | January 1993 | 1995 | |
Abdul Waheed Kakar | August 1989 | January 1993 | |
Syed Zakir Ali Zaidi | May 1987 | August 1989 | |
Khushdil Khan Afridi | 1985 | May 1987 |
The Pakistan Army, commonly known as the Pak Army, is the land service branch and the largest component of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The president of Pakistan is the supreme commander of the army. The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), a four-star general, commands the army. The Army was established in August 1947 after Pakistan gained independence from the United Kingdom. According to statistics provided by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in 2024, the Pakistan Army has approximately 560,000 active duty personnel, supported by the Pakistan Army Reserve, the National Guard and the Civil Armed Forces. Pakistan Army is the sixth-largest army in the world and the largest in the Muslim world.
Rahimuddin Khan was a general of the Pakistan Army who served as the 4th Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1984 to 1987, after serving as the 7th governor of Balochistan from 1978 to 1984. He also served as the 16th governor of Sindh in 1988.
The Insurgency in Balochistan is an insurgency or revolt by Baloch separatist insurgents and various Islamist militant groups against the governments of Pakistan and Iran in the Balochistan region, which covers the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, and Balochistan of southern Afghanistan. Rich in natural resources, this is the largest, least populated and least developed province in Pakistan and Iran, and armed groups demand greater control of the province's natural resources and political autonomy. Baloch separatists have attacked civilians from other ethnicities throughout the province. In the 2010s, attacks against the Shia community by sectarian groups—though not always directly related to the political struggle—have risen, contributing to tensions in Balochistan. In Pakistan, the ethnic separatist insurgency is low-scale but ongoing mainly in southern Balochistan, as well as sectarian and religiously motivated militancy concentrated mainly in northern and central Balochistan.
The Balochistan Liberation Army is a Baloch ethnonationalist militant organization in the Baluchistan region, which is in Afghanistan. BLA perpetrates its activities from safe havens scattered across Southern Afghanistan into the Pakistan's largest province of Balochistan, where it frequently carries out attacks against the Pakistan Armed Forces, civilians and foreign nationals. BLA's first recorded activity was during the summer of 2000, after it claimed credit for a series of bombing attacks on Pakistani authorities. BLA is listed as a terrorist organization by Pakistan, China, Iran, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.
The Frontier Corps are a group of four paramilitary forces of Pakistan, operating in the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to maintain law and order while overseeing the country's borders with Afghanistan and Iran. There are four Frontier Corps: FC KPK (North) and FC KPK (South) stationed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and FC Balochistan (North) and FC Balochistan (South) stationed in Balochistan province.
The XI Corps is a field corps of the Pakistan Army, headquartered in Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Marines or simply as Pak Marines, is an expeditionary and amphibious warfare uniform service branch within the Pakistan Navy, consisting of the naval officers and other personnel to perform their duties within the Marines. Pakistan Marines are responsible for providing force protection in littorals, using the mobility of the Pakistan Navy to provide creeks defence, ground based air defence and Force protection.
The Ministry of Defence, is an executive ministry of the federal Government of Pakistan, tasked in defending national interests and territorial integrity of Pakistan. The MoD oversees mission execution of its policies and supervises all agencies of the government directly related to the national security and the Pakistan Armed Forces.
The X Corps is a field corps of Pakistan Army, currently headquartered in Chaklala Cantonment, Punjab, Pakistan. Together with the I Corps, it has an area of responsibility and responsibility to protect the Kashmir region— the side only which Pakistan administrates.
The II Corps is a field corps of the Pakistan Army headquartered in Multan Cantonment, Punjab in Pakistan. It is one the ten maneuver corps formations of the Pakistani military which has seen deployments against the Indian Army in 1971 towards east and the Afghan war to enforce national defenses in west of Pakistan.
Mohammad Iqbal KhanNI(M) HI(M) SI(M) SBt (1924–2000) was a senior general in the Pakistan Army who served as the third Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from being appointed in 1980 until 1984.
The V Corps is a field corps of the Pakistan Army currently headquartered in Karachi, Sindh in Pakistan. Its current mission objectives are to provide security and external security deployments within its area of responsibility. One of Pakistan army's ten field corps, it has an area of responsibility and responsibility to protect of Sindh region.
The Leadership Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also translated as the Supreme Council, is an advisory council to the Supreme Leader of Afghanistan. The supreme leader convenes and chairs the council at his sole discretion. He has ultimate authority and may override or circumvent it at any time. It played a key role in directing the Taliban insurgency from Quetta, Pakistan, which led to it being informally referred to as the Quetta Shura at the time.
General Raheel SharifNI(M) HI(M) LOM is a retired four-star army general of the Pakistan Army who served as the ninth chief of army staff from 29 November 2013 to 29 November 2016. After his retirement as Pakistan's army chief, he was appointed as the commander of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, a 41-nation alliance of Muslim countries headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army was the professional head of the Pakistan Army from 1947 to 1972. The C-in-C was directly responsible for commanding the army. It was an administrative position and the appointment holder had main operational command authority over the army.
Brigadier Sikandar Khan was the commander of the artillery corps of the IV Corps in Pakistan Army. He was due to retire in 2014, but voluntarily retired in 2013 as a one-star general to run his own security company, Ever Ready Security Management (Pvt) Ltd. He was offered to be the director of National University of Modern Languages after his retirement but he respectfully declined to focus on expanding his security company. Khan has been awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz for his distinguished service.
Nasir Khan JanjuaHI(M) is a former three-star general of the Pakistan Army, who prior to retiring served as Corps Commander Quetta. He served as the 7th National Security Advisor of Pakistan from 23 October 2015 until his resignation on 27 June 2018.
Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad was a combined military operation by the Pakistani military in support of local law enforcement agencies to disarm and eliminate the terrorist sleeper cells across all states of Pakistan, started on 22 February 2017. The operation aimed to eliminate the threat of terrorism, and consolidating the gains of Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was launched in 2014 as a joint military offensive. It was further aimed at ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders. The operation underwent active participation from the Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Police and other Warfare and Civil Armed Forces managed under the Government of Pakistan. More than 375,000 intelligence-based operations had been carried out as of 2021. This operation has been mostly acknowledged after Operation Zarb e Azb.
On 23 June 2017, a series of terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan resulting in 96 dead and over 200 wounded. They included a suicide bombing in Quetta targeting policemen, followed by a double bombing at a market in Parachinar, and the targeted killing of four policemen in Karachi.
The Civil Armed Forces (CAF) are a group of nine paramilitary, uniformed organisations, separate and distinct from the regular "military" Pakistan Armed Forces. They are responsible for maintaining internal security, helping law enforcement agencies, border control, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, riot control, and anti-smuggling under the Ministry of Interior. They frequently operate alongside the Pakistani military in response to natural disasters. During times of war they can have their command transferred to the Ministry of Defence, and effectively combined to form a reserve force for the Pakistani military.