Change of command at 11 Corps: Lt Gen Nauman Mahmood takes charge as Corps Commander Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A change of command took place at the 11 Corps here Monday as Lieutenant General Nauman Mahmood took charge as the Corps Commander.

He replaced Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood, who has been appointed Corps Commander Mangla, which is one of the strike formations of Pakistan Army and is also known as 1 Corps or I Strike Corps. It is one of the oldest and major formations of the Pakistan Army. Lt Gen Nauman Mahmood isn't new to the 11 Corps headquartered in Peshawar.

He served here earlier as chief of staff to Lt Gen Khalid Rabbani, the Corps Commander Peshawar until October 2014.

As a major general, Nauman Mahmood also remained general officer commanding (GOC), Miranshah, North Waziristan, which has been one of the major battlegrounds in the war against terrorism and where Zarb-e-Azb, the biggest military operation targeting local and foreign militants, was launched in June 2014.

Later, he served in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as director general analysis and most recently as Inspector General Communications & Information Technology at the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters (GHQ). He was promoted to the rank of Lt Gen in April 2019.

Lt Gen Nauman Mahmood would now hold his senior-most position to-date as Commander 11 Corps to head the force operating in the strategically important areas bordering war-ravaged Afghanistan and all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which now includes ex-Fata after the latter's merger with the province in May 2018.

Compared with past corps commanders, Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood spent relatively less time as Corps Commander Peshawar. He served for 13 months only having assumed charge on November 3, 2018 and getting transferred on December 2, 2019. One of the reasons for his early transfer is stated to be the need for someone from the Armoured Corps who held senior positions to lead the strike force based in Mangla. He is from the Armoured Corps like his predecessors who served as Corps Commander Mangla. Some of the prominent generals who served as Mangla Corps commanders were Lt Generals Azam Khan, Abdul Hameed Khan, Tikka Khan, Atiqur Rahman, Abdul Ali Malik and Pervez Musharraf.

Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood would take over from Lt Gen Nadeem Zaki Manj, who has been made director general, Strategic Plans Division in place of Lt Gen Sarfraz Sattar, who was superseded recently with the appointment of the recently promoted Gen Nadeem Raza as the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Under Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood's command, a sustained military operation was carried out in the troubled North Waziristan tribal district to clear Alwara Mandi, the village sited on the border with Afghanistan, from militants. The action was also aimed at sealing the Pak-Afghan border and resettling the temporarily displaced persons living in the relief camp at Bakkakhel by repatriating them to their villages in North Waziristan. The army claimed major damage was inflicted upon the Gul Bahadur faction of the local Taliban during the operation. The security forces too faced increased number of attacks from militants using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and carrying out ambushes.

It was also during Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood's term as Peshawar Corps Commander that the May 26, 2019 Khar Kamar security checkpost incident took place in which 13 persons were killed and 25 others sustained injuries.

The army alleged that a mob provoked by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) raised slogans against the security forces and attacked the checkpost while the soldiers fired in self-defence. Efforts were subsequently made to defuse the situation and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan announced a compensation package for the victims of the Khar Kamar incident.

Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood interacted frequently with the tribal people from erstwhile Fata, especially the youth and students, to hear their point of view and reassure them of the military's commitment to restore durable peace in their areas and continue the ongoing reconstruction and development activities.