Ours is the best army, says COAS Gen Raheel Sharif

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has said that, with its current achievements in the ongoing war on terror and standard of conventional war training, the Pakistan Army is the best army.

“We have to remain ready for full spectrum of threat. The morale of our troops is sky high,” he said, commending combat fitness of the troops while witnessing a large scale offensive and defensive maneuver in the training area of the Multan Corps.  

The army chief is on a two-day visit to Bahawalpur and Multan to witness military exercises. An earlier exercise of the Bahawalpur Corps ended this morning in the Cholistan desert after which the military chief moved to the training area of the Multan Corps.

COAS going for an aerial view of offensive manoeuvres onboard a combat attack helicopter.—ISPR photo

“With our current achievements in ongoing war on terror and standard of conventional war training, ours is the best army,” the army chief was quoted as saying in a press release today from ISPR, the military’s public relations wing.

Earlier on Thursday while speaking to the troops of the Bahawalpur and Multan formations participating in exercises in the Cholistan desert, Gen Sharif said that all available means must be utilized to improve the operational capability of the Army to effectively respond to the full spectrum of threat.

“Strenuous training and highest standard of preparedness in peacetime are the only guarantors of peace,” he said.

The Army Chief visited training area near Fort Abbas and Dingarh and witnessed training exercise of Bahawalpur Corps wherein the operational capability of the field formations was being tested in near war environment, to validate the new war fighting concept.

The exercise involved large scale integrated maneuvers of infantry, mechanized forces, combat aviation and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). The scope of the exercise included offensive and defensive maneuvers by the Army to ensure complete dominance of the battlefield.

The formations and units have been undergoing this exercise under strenuous field conditions for over a month now, with the final phase of the exercise along with the validation underway today.

Earlier, the COAS inaugurated the newly constructed Church and soldiers mess at Bahawalpur garrison. He was received by Corps Commander Lieutenant General Javed Iqbal on arrival in Bahawalpur on Thursday.