Army team leaves for Indonesia

Published January 7, 2005

ISLAMABAD, Jan 6: Another batch of Army troops comprising seventy engineers, doctors and paramedical staff left Chaklala air-base on Thursday to form part of the task force for the tsunami-hit areas in Indonesia.

According to a press release issued by the ISPR, Major-Gen Asif Ali, Director-General Army Engineers and Major-Gen Farrukh, Deputy Surgeon General, saw the troops off at the air-base.

The first batch of the task force comprising army doctors, paramedics and engineers arrived in north Sumatra province on Tuesday. The troops will set up a field hospital in Indonesia's worst- hit Bander Aceh province.

En route to Bander Aceh, the troops established a mobile hospital where over 150 patients were treated and provided with necessary medicines. The two C-130 aircraft which left for Indonesia on Tuesday also carried two tons of medicines.

The troops will set up a 50-bed hospital in Aceh which will provide minor surgery and meet other medical needs. The deployment for the hospital will complete by the end of this week.