Dr. Syed Mehboob
Senior Research Editor, The News Lark
Political and economic analyst
http//: www.thenewslark.com
Terrorism, without any doubt, is a menace, a crime against humanity, and needs to be crushed strictly. Terrorists have no nationality or religion, and they are enemies of all humanity. They target innocent civilians, including children, women, and elderly people. Pakistan is a victim of terrorism and has been fighting against terrorism for a long. It has lost 90,000 lives, including children, women, and elderly people, and suffered a Himalayan loss of US$ 150 billion. Cooperation between Pakistan and Russia to counter and fight against terrorism is the need of the hour. Druzhba IX was a strong step in this direction.
Tajikistan-based Russian mountain infantry, reconnaissance personnel and UAV crews join Pakistan’s Cherat exercise, highlighting deployment logistics and the operational limits of bilateral defence cooperation.
Conducted in late September and early October 2026, the ninth Druzhba iteration paired Pakistan’s special-operations establishment with a Russian contingent whose composition highlights the practical connection between regional force posture, tactical cooperation and the logistics of operating beyond familiar infrastructure.The Russian deployment window extended from 20 September to 3 October, while Pakistan marked the opening on 22 September, a distinction that separates movement and preparation from ceremonial activity without establishing contradictory accounts of its duration.
At that opening, Colonel Oleg Stetsyuk, deputy chief of staff of Russia’s Central Military District, connected the training with combat camaraderie and defence against armed incursions, presenting an official purpose that should be distinguished from demonstrated battlefield improvement.
Brigadier General Muhammad Imran Aslam, commander of Pakistan’s 22nd Special Forces Brigade, described the exercise as strengthening military cooperation and exchanging counter-terrorism methods, identifying professional contact and procedural learning as objectives without announcing collective defence commitments.
The most consequential force-structure detail was the participation of mountain motor-rifle personnel, reconnaissance elements and strike and reconnaissance UAV crews from Russia’s 201st Guards Military Base, shifting the emphasis away from the Southern Military District special-forces contingents from earlier iterations.That composition creates potential links between observation, infantry manoeuvre and precision engagement, but the record does not establish whether Russian unmanned aircraft flew at Cherat, transmitted targeting information or supported Pakistani assault teams during training.
Cherat’s close-quarters battle facilities, urban training areas and mountain environment provided a setting suited to the activities, although access to appropriate infrastructure establishes training opportunity rather than evidence that either contingent achieved measurable improvements in effectiveness or interoperability.
The deployment carried a logistical purpose: rehearsing the movement of Tajikistan-based Russian troops to a distant theatre and operating with unfamiliar infrastructure, a requirement that connects tactical readiness to transport arrangements, sustainment planning and host-force support outside garrison routines.
Strategically, Druzhba-IX preserved a Pakistan–Russia defence channel established in 2016.
Druzhba-IX took place in the Cherat area of Nowshera District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, at a military location associated with Pakistan’s Special Services Group and Special Operations School, anchoring the exercise within a training environment rather than new expeditionary infrastructure.
Located on the Khattak range at approximately 1,370 metres above sea level, Cherat combines elevated terrain with specialized assault facilities, giving the announced mountain and urban elements a relevant physical setting without demonstrating that high-altitude warfare formed an objective.
Its position roughly 52–55 kilometers southeast of Peshawar matters operationally because movement into a hill cantonment differs from arrival at a flat training ground, potentially requiring visiting personnel to adapt their scheduling, equipment handling and local transport coordination to terrain.
The access route from the Grand Trunk Road near Pabbi railway station illustrates how regional transport connections feed a more confined destination, although the information does not identify the vehicles, aircraft, entry points, or Russian movement sequence.
For the 201st Guards Military Base personnel, unfamiliar infrastructure was explicitly part of the exercise rationale, making reception arrangements and adaptation to local facilities relevant indicators of expeditionary preparedness, although no assessment quantifies delays, support requirements or logistical performance.Cherat’s significance consequently lies in combining specialized Pakistani training capacity with a Russian deployment challenge, offering a bounded opportunity to test adaptation.
Russia’s contingent drew its core personnel from the 201st Guards Military Base at Dushanbe and Bokhtar in Tajikistan, connecting Druzhba-IX to the Central Military District’s overseas garrison structure. The supplied material identifies the 201st as Russia’s largest overseas garrison, making its participation relevant to regional military presence while providing no evidence that the Pakistan deployment reduced readiness in Tajikistan, altered standing missions, or involved substantial personnel numbers.
Mountain motor-rifle subunits brought an infantry component whose relevance rests on movement and combat in difficult terrain, while reconnaissance personnel introduced a complementary information-gathering function, creating a force mix suited to linking observation with manoeuvre during counter-terrorism training.
Earlier reporting referenced an Orlan-type reconnaissance battalion at the base from 2019, yet that background cannot establish an Orlan deployment to Cherat in 2026, just as references to mountain and FPV-style training do not confirm their use at Cherat.
Compared with earlier iterations involving Southern Military District special-forces personnel, this composition widened the potential exchange toward mountain infantry, reconnaissance and unmanned-systems practice, although the absence of subunit designations prevents a precise comparison of roles, specialisms or command.
Pakistan’s host formation was identified as the 22nd Special Forces Brigade under Brigadier General Muhammad Imran Aslam, placing the visiting Russian elements alongside a Pakistani structure without demonstrating that the entire brigade participated or that equivalent formations trained together.
No official contingent strength was released, so historical participation figures of roughly 70–200 personnel cannot be transferred to Druzhba-IX, when the changed Russian composition could involve different proportions of combat trainees, instructors, technical specialists, and support staff within that total.
The ninth joint Druzhba IX Military Exercises between Russia and Pakistan concluded on October 6, 2026, at Cherat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
The exercises brought together personnel from Russia’s 201st Military Base (Central Military District), stationed in Tajikistan, and Pakistan’s Special Forces. The troops demonstrated coordinated counterterrorism operations in challenging terrain, using advanced weapons and technologies, including UAVs. Ambassador Albert P Khorev attended the closing ceremony of IX Joint Russia-Pakistan “Druzhba” military exercises at Cherat (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). The participating forces were commanded by Colonel Oleg Stetsyuk, Deputy Chief of Staff of Russia’s Central Military District; Lieutenant General Muhammad Amir Najam, Inspector General Training and Evaluation; Major General Ahmed Jawad, Commander Special Operations Forces; and Brigadier General Muhammad Imran Aslam, Commander of the 22nd Special Forces Brigade of the Pakistan Army.( Continued)
