ISLAMABAD – United States had hired private contractors in Pakistan toperform the intelligence and security duties in Pakistan, a private mediareport has revealed.
The presence of underground American contractors in Pakistan drew littlenotice until lately when it was reported that 90 of them have been murderedin the country in recent years. These contractors also perform“intelligence duties” by identifying “appropriate methods for obtaining thenecessary in-transit visibility information”.
In a notice in The Nation in 2010, the US announced a bid for private warcontractors to transport military warfare through sensitive regions ofPakistan into Afghanistan. The notice advertised that there will be around5,000 import shipments and 500 export shipments moving along the groundlines in a month.
The US had to hire third-party contractors because of the threats of“direct US military involvement” in Pakistan. Though there is a variabilityon data but the US Central Command told Congress in 2010 that 137,000contractors are deployed in the Middle East region including Pakistan, Iranand Afghanistan.
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According to a private media outletlink,a January 2010 report of the Foreign Policy notes how 62 retired militaryofficials in Pakistan run private security firms and adds that US shiftedtowards private contractors after Taliban launched an attack against a UNresidence in 2009, killing five UN employees.
