RAWALPINDI: A Pakistani soldier, Lance Naik Adil Jan, embraced martyrdom while on duty during a peacekeeping mission in Sudan, according to a press release issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Saturday.
“Lance Naik Adil Jan, FC Balochistan, age 38 years was part of UN mission at Darfur which is responsible for the protection of civilians and facilitating humanitarian assistance,” the military’s media wing stated.
The soldier was posted at the African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur. He hailed from Lakki Marwat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York said that Jan “passed away” on Sept 9, “shortly after being taken ill while on duty in El Fasher”. The soldier “will be fondly remembered as a dedicated, highly knowledgeable and professional”, it added.
According to military’s media wing, as many as 161 Pakistani peacekeepers have so far laid their lives as part of global peace missions for international peace and stability. Pakistan is one of the longest-serving and largest contributors to UN peacekeeping and has a health personnel unit in Darfur as well.
Pakistan’s first UN peacekeeping mission began in 1960 in Congo and so far more than 200,000 Pakistani soldiers have participated in 60 missions in 28 countries. Pakistan still has more than 7,000 personnel deployed in nine countries as part of 14 ongoing UN missions.
In 2018, a Pakistani UN peacekeeper was shot dead by ‘members of an armed group’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a United Nations spokesperson said. The incident happened when the Pakistani peacekeeping convoy was ambushed by armed rebels near Lulimba, 96 km south West of Baraka, South Kivu Province.
