ISLAMABAD, Sept 9: Pakistan on Saturday announced its decision to dispatch its contingent to Lebanon exclusively on a de-mining mission in response to appeals for humanitarian assistance by the Lebanese leadership and the OIC secretary-general.

“In view of the appeals made by the leadership and in view of the continued threat of explosive devices faced by the Lebanese people, the government has decided to send a contingent of Pakistani personnel for the exclusive purpose of de-mining,” the Foreign Office said.

“This decision of the government is based purely on considerations of solidarity with the people of Lebanon and our commitment to help them recover from the devastation of the recent conflict,” it declared.

The Lebanon president, speaker and prime minister with whom Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz met during his visit to Beirut last month had made a strong appeal for Pakistan’s help in the area of de-mining and humanitarian assistance.

The Pakistani contingent would most likely be deployed in the southern parts of Lebanon where landmines, cluster bombs and booby traps continue to pose a deadly threat to Lebanese people.

The Foreign Office did not indicate the size of the contingent but a senior military official told Dawn that it would comprise around 200 engineers and de-mining experts.

He made it clear that the contingent was not being sent under the UN mandate, adding that it was a purely bilateral arrangement on humanitarian grounds.

Well-placed government sources told this correspondent that the Pakistan contingent was expected to leave by the third week of the current month.

It would take around a week to work out the logistics and move the de-mining equipment, said a military source.

Another military official pointed out that since de-mining was a very time-consuming and tedious task, it was difficult to predict the duration of the mission.

To a question, he said in the past too, Pakistan had been part of several de-mining missions abroad. The last one was after the first Gulf War along the Kuwait-Iraq border, where Pakistani experts did extensive de-mining, he added.

Meanwhile, the government has also decided to continue dispatching the desperately-needed humanitarian assistance to the people of Lebanon.

Two more relief flights would be sent shortly, the Foreign Office said.

The prime minister, during his trip to Beirut to demonstrate Pakistan’s solidarity with people of Lebanon, had visited the areas devastated by Israeli bombing and witnessed the widespread damage to life and property.

The devastation caused in the southern parts of Lebanon is even greater where nearly 70 per cent of the towns and villages have been destroyed and thousands of innocent men, women and children killed.