Extremely alarming report about Chitral youth

Saturday, August 04, 2012 - WE have been hearing reports in the past about recruitment of youth in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by Taliban and other militant groups at salaries almost double than what the Government is paying to personnel of security forces. It was in this backdrop that the authorities concerned substantially raised salaries of these forces to attract youth and also created thousands of vacancies for the purpose.

But now the situation has taken another dangerous turn as according to a report being attributed to the Home Department of KPK, a large number of youth in the border areas of Chitral district have joined the Afghan National Army and also offered services to NATO forces in Afghanistan. It is an open secret that the US, NATO and other foreign forces have been engaging local agents and hiring services of people for different purposes through dubious network of foreign funded NGOs. Similarly, Pakistani manpower is also recruited by some friendly countries of the Gulf for their Armed Forces or law enforcing agencies but the case of the Afghan Army is quite different and sensitive as in the given geo-strategic situation the recruits might be used for anti-Pakistan designs. There is also possibility that leakage of this information is part of the deliberate campaign to create doubts about viability of Pakistan and to destabilize the country for a specific agenda. However, if the report is correct then the question arises as to where were our agencies when all this was taking place. And what steps they are taking to nip this evil in the bud.