It has the area of responsibility and to protect the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region, which has seen active military actions in the continuous Afghan conflict since its establishment in 1975.: 10–11 [4]
Overview
Formation and war service
As part of the major reorganization of the Pakistani military in 1974, the XI Corps was one of three corps that were formed to strengthened the national defenses to protect the north–south links from the incursions and secret raids coming from the Afghan National Army.: 119 [5][3] It was followed by V Corps stationed in South, having headquartered in Peshawar Cantonment with Lt-Gen. Majeed Malik becoming its first commander in 1975.: vii [6][7]
The XI Corps structure is based on 7th Inf. Div. and the 9th Inf. Div. with the armored, engineering, and signal brigades and elements of the Frontier Corps being its part.: 148–149 [8]
Similar to the X Corps, the XI Corps has an area of expertise in mountain warfare, and sometimes, it is included in the Northern Command— though it is the X Corps that leads the Northern Command overall.: 309–311 [9]
Due to its deployment in sensitive border areas and mission parameters to prevent Afghan Army or insurgents' adventures in western fronts, the XI Corps has seen more military actions against the former Soviet Army, the former Afghan National Army and then the insurgents than any of Pakistan's field corps deployed in other fronts since the 1980.: 64–65 [10]
Structure
Based on the known information to the public release, the order of battle (ORBAT) is subject to troops rotation based on a strategic calculations by the Pakistani war strategists.[6]
Although, the XI Corps has permanent infantry divisions with engineering and signal brigades in its support, the XI Corps has received reinforcements from local law enforcement agencies, army's special forces, and the elements of the Frontier Corps during the heights of the military operations in the War on terror theater.[10] The XI corps is based in the following areas:
