A contingent of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops returned to their respective countries Wednesday on completion of their mission in the quake-hit Pakistan- administered Kashmir region. "The group of 110 soldiers was part of the Spanish-led multinational engineer battalion of the NATO land component command in Pakistan", NATO spokesman Antonio Jose Rodrigue said in Islamabad. During their stay in Kashmir, the soldiers built school facilities, emergency living shelters at high elevation, cleared roads from mudslides and debris, repaired water distribution lines and erected tent schools for hundreds of students in different areas. A team of 1,000 NATO light engineers and paramedics had arrived in Bagh district of Kashmir region last November to help the Pakistani government in its relief and reconstruction efforts following the October 8 earthquake which killed over 75,000 people. Last Thursday, a 170-member NATO contingent comprising both light engineers and paramedics had left Pakistan, days after departure of some 130 doctors, nurses and support staff from the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and Britain, who had formed a multi- national NATO hospital in Kashmir. The government decided not to extend stay of NATO troops beyond 90 days period, expiring middle of February. There are still some 600 troops left in Kashmir, who are to return to their respective countries by middle of February. --SP 20 28 Local Time 17 28 GMT
