QUETTA: The last contingent of US personnel and technicians would leave the Shamsi airbase in Washak district of Balochistan on Sunday, along with the equipment and military vehicles.
“A cargo plane of the US Air Force arrived at the airbase today to take the US troops to their next destination,” a senior government official told Dawn on Saturday night.A private plane carrying Pakistani officials also landed at the airbase on Saturday. They visited the facility to witness the evacuation process.
The sources said that about 20 US cargo planes had landed at the airbase over the past week to shift sensitive equipment, vehicles and belongings of the US troops who had been using the base for the last 10 years.
A large number of Frontier Corps personnel reached Washak to take control of the security of airbase.
After the 9/11 incident the Musharraf government had allowed the United Stares to use two airbases in the province — Dalbandin and Shamsi. The Shamsi airbase was built in 1992 by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the then ruler of the United Arab Emirates.
Pakistan decided to get the Shamsi airbase vacated in protest against the Nov 26 Nato air strikes on its border posts in Mohmand tribal region in which at least 24 Pakistani troops were killed.
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