Hiring of former SSG commandos: Inter-Risk restarts operations under new name

Private security company, Haris Enterprises, has taken over from where the banned Inter-Risk left off - recruitment and training of ex-commandos of Pakistan Army - for American security company, DynCorp and Xe Services (Blackwater). Haris Enterprises is operating from Malpur village of Chak Shahzad, a rural but posh area of Islamabad where it has set up an office and a training facility, well informed sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday.
After receiving reports regarding the hiring of retired commandos of Pakistan Army by Inter-Risk, a Pakistani partner of the American Security Company, DynCorp, the Interior Ministry took serious notice, and launched an inquiry. The ministry directed the Inspector General of Islamabad Police to investigate the matter and submit a report, but no report had yet been submitted to the ministry by the Islamabad IG, said the sources.
The Islamabad Police chief was unavailable for comments even after repeated attempts by this scribe. Intelligence agencies have brought to the notice of the Interior Ministry that Inter-Risk has recommenced its activities in Islamabad along with evidence of recruitment of former SSG personnel. Inter-Risk, after this report, started work under the new name of Haris Enterprises.
Haris Enterprises is allegedly facilitating DynCorp and Xe Services (Blackwater) to recruit retired commandos and training them as a quick-response force to meet the requirements of the under-cover Americans operating in Islamabad, the sources said. It is reliably learnt that application forms are available at specific photostat shops in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and are issued to retired commandos of Special Services Group, an elite commando force of Pakistan Army.
Retired commandos have been offered jobs as security guards. These retired SSG commandos would be trained under the supervision of American trainers in a private training institute working under the garb of an automobile workshop in the outskirts of Islamabad. Islamabad Police raided the office of Inter-Risk in F-6 Sector of Islamabad on September 19 and reportedly impounded dozens of unlicensed sophisticated weapons. Captain Ali Jaffer Zaidi, a retired officer of the SSG, was also arrested.
Captain Zaidi had recruited more than 200 retired army officials, mostly from the SSG, and they were being given special training at a training camp, in the outskirts of Islamabad. The presence of American military contractors, like DynCorp and Xe Services (Blackwater), in Islamabad, had been extensively reported in the local media. Foreigners, mainly of the US origin, have reportedly acquired around 284 houses in different sectors of Islamabad.
A local security company, Wackenhut, has the contract to provide security to all these 284 houses in different sectors of Islamabad and their guards are deployed at these houses. This company is one of four recommended by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, US Department of State, on diplomatic security on its website.