The Frontier Force Regiment is one of the six infantry regiments of the Pakistan Army. They are popularly known as the Piffers in reference to their military history as the PIF (Punjab Irregular Force) of the British Indian Army, or as the FF (Frontier Force). The regiment takes its name from the historic North-West Frontier, a former province of British India and later Pakistan (present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).
Most of the regiment's ancestral military formations were units composed of infantry of either Punjabi or Pathan origin. However, the oldest unit of the regiment is the Scinde Camel Corps, raised in 1843 under Company rule in India. Another ancestral unit was the infantry component of the British Indian Army Corps of Guides (partial cavalry unit). Despite being a Pakistani regiment, the Frontier Force Regiment is also the successor to several Sikh regiments due to their widespread deployments in the North-West Frontier during the British Raj.
Presently, the regiment consists of 52 battalions, with its regimental centre located in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Due to this regiment's presence, Abbottabad is also locally known as the "Home of the Piffers".Kathryn Cramer: Google Earth Dynamic Overlay for Pakistan Now Available! (Plus "Home of the Piffers" and a Dragon Hunt) In its current form, the Frontier Force Regiment consists of both mechanized and motorized infantry battalions; there are also some armoured and artillery battalions which were raised from the ranks of the Frontier Force or one of its predecessor regiments.
The modern Frontier Force is Pakistan's third-oldest military regiment in terms of the date of most recent amalgamation, behind the Punjab and Baloch regiments. The regiment was raised in its current form in 1957, through the amalgamation of two (with a later third component) former British Indian Army regiments: the 12th Frontier Force Regiment and the 13th Frontier Force Rifles. The third component, the Pathan Regiment, had been raised from the elements of the former two. The regiments' merger took place when a major formation reorganization was carried out in the Pakistan Army.
Battalions of the Frontier Force Regiment have seen extensive wartime combat with neighbouring India during all of the Indo-Pakistani wars that have occurred since the Partition of India in 1947. Outside of the subcontinent, the regiment's elements have also served overseas, having been deployed to Saudi Arabia in the Middle East and to Somalia in Eastern Africa as part of the 1990s United Nations humanitarian peacekeeping force in Somalia. In the latter deployment, Frontier Force battalions participated in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.
The battalions are divided under independent formations and are commanded by their formation commander. Training and record-keeping is undertaken by the regimental depot, which is usually directed by a brigadier. The regiment's highest-ranking officer is given the honorary title of Colonel-Commandant (usually for Lieutenant-Generals) or "Colonel-in-Chief" (for the Chief of Army Staff or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee).
Origins
The Frontier Force Regiment came into being in 1957 with the amalgamation of the Frontier Force Regiment, the Frontier Force Rifles and the Pathan Regiment, all of which had their origins in the British Indian Army. During the 1840s, after the first and second Anglo-Sikh Wars, Colonel Sir Henry Lawrence, the Honourable East India Company's agent to the Lahore Durbar (brother of the later Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab Sir John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence) sanctioned the raising of the Corps of Guides and a number of infantry regiments by incorporating veterans from the disbanded Sikh Khalsa army. During the early 1850s some of Lawrence's Sikh regiments were designated the "Punjab Irregular Force", giving rise to the "Piffer" nickname which the Regiment carries to the present day, and through a series of reorganisations that culminated in 1922, these units would eventually become the 12th Frontier Force Regiment and 13th Frontier Force Rifles. The use of the pre-fixing regimental numbers was discontinued in 1945, the two regiments becoming the Frontier Force Regiment and the Frontier Force Rifles, and both regiments were transferred to Pakistan by the United Kingdom in 1947, on the independence to British India.
The Pathan Regiment was raised after independence from the 4th Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment and the 4th and 15th Battalions of the Frontier Force Rifles. Initially the regimental depot was at Dera Ismail Khan but it relocated to Kohat in 1949 and was later merged into the Frontier Force Regiment with its regimental depot at Abbottabad. Note that there is an error in this source. 4/12 was a Frontier Force Regiment battalion, not a Frontier Force Rifles btn. Fifteen of the modern Frontier Force Regiment's 52 battalions trace their origins back to British Indian Army units, as tabulated below.
+ Origins of merged battalions of the Frontier Force Regiment Battalion Founder units1st6th Royal Bn Frontier Force Rifles; 59th Royal Scinde Rifles (Frontier Force) - Mechanised infantry (Mounted Rifles)2nd5th Bn Frontier Force Regiment; 1st Bn QVO Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) Lumsden's Infantry - Infantry Scouts3rd1st Bn (PWO Sikhs) Frontier Force Regiment; 51st The Prince of Wales' Own Sikhs (Frontier Force) - Line Infantry Rifles4th2nd Bn (Sikhs) Frontier Force Regiment; 52nd Sikhs (Frontier Force) - Mountain Infantry Rifles5th3rd Royal Bn (Sikhs) Frontier Force Regiment; 53rd Sikhs (Frontier Force) - Anti-Tank6th4th Bn (Sikhs) Frontier Force Regiment; 54th Sikhs (Frontier Force) - Paratroop Battalion7th1st Bn Frontier Force Rifles; 55th Coke's Rifles (Frontier Force) - Line Infantry Rifles8th2nd Punjab Infantry, 2/13 Frontier Force Rifles, 56th Punjabi Rifles (Frontier Force) - Line Infantry Rifles, Commonly known as BHAIBANDS9th4th Bn Frontier Force Rifles; 57th Wilde's Rifles (Frontier Force) - Mechanised Infantry (Mounted Rifles)10th5th Bn Frontier Force Rifles; 58th Vaughan's Rifles (Frontier Force) - Mountain Infantry11th1st Bn Pathan Regiment; 14th Bn Frontier Force Regiment; 54th Sikhs (Frontier Force) - Heavy Support (Mortar) - Mechanised Infantry 12th3rd Bn Pathan Regiment; 15th Bn Frontier Force Rifles - Mountain Infantry13th8th Bn Frontier Force Regiment - Mechanised Infantry14thWar-raised on 1st April 1941 as the 9th Bn Frontier Force of the 12 Frontier Force Regiment - post 1948, known as 9th Bn the FF Regiment, until standardisation in 1956, following which it was re-numbered as the 14th Bn the Frontier Force Regiment 15th2nd Bn Pathan Regiment; 4th Bn Frontier Force Rifles; 57th Wilde's Rifles - Mechanised (Mounted Rifles) Infantry & Anti-Aircraft Support
Composition
At present, the Frontier Force Regiment musters 67 infantry battalions, some of which are mechanised or motorised with the remainder known colloquially as "foot infantry". Each battalion is subdivided into four companies, normally named Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta.Pakistan Army Infantry Divisions The regiment also includes armoured and artillery units, established from among its strength. All Piffer battalions serve alongside other Pakistan Army units in mixed formations; operational control resides with the appropriate brigade, whereas administrative control remains with the Frontier Force regimental depot. The regiment recruits mostly from the Pashtun tribes of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, although officers and other ranks from all over Pakistan have served and continue to serve in the regiment. Prior to 2000, the Piffers had been standardised to include equal numbers of Pashtuns and Punjabis in its non-officer ranks, but in 2000, this composition was amended to include 10% Sindhis and 5% Balochis, reducing the quota of Punjabis to 35%. This measure was intended to diminish segregation within the Army.
Headquarters The regiment is currently based in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's city of Abbottabad, which also houses the depots of the Baloch Regiment and the Army Medical Corps. The city was originally the headquarters of the Frontier Force Rifles prior to their merger with the Frontier Force Regiment and the Pathan Regiment (then based at Sialkot and Kohat respectively). The Abbottabad depot is responsible for the regiment's basic recruit training. Initially recruits are trained for a period of 36 weeks. Since 1981 has housed the Piffer Museum, which records the Piffer's regimental history. The museum's collection includes medals, weapons, dress and insignia, portraits and flags, history books, albums, paintings, cutlery and musical instruments. Abbottabad is also home to the Piffer Memorial, a tall obelisk built of sandstone known as Yadgar-e-Shuhada. This was originally erected at Kohat by Field Marshal William Birdwood on 23 October 1924 in the memory of those killed in World War I, but in 1964 on the orders of the then Commander-in-Chief General Muhammad Musa, it was moved to Abbottabad. It was unveiled in Abbottabad in April 1965. A Roll of Honour is displayed around the memorial on plates, and wreath-laying ceremonies are held on important national days and by visitors. Later a replica of the memorial was built at its original location at Kohat in 2001.
Kashmir dispute Since independence in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and one minor war, and have been involved in an ongoing conflict since 1984. The casus belli for most of these is the dispute between the two countries over the status of the state of Kashmir. Piffers participated in each of these conflicts with the participation in the war of 1947 by its founding formations.
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
Concerned by what it saw as Indian attempts to absorb the disputed region of Kashmir, in 1965 Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar to foment a popular uprising against Indian control in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the operation did not produce the hoped-for results, and following a period of escalating clashes between Indian and Pakistani troops and irregulars from April to September, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 began. Also known as the Second Kashmir War (the first having been fought in 1947), the five-week conflict led to territorial gains and losses, and caused thousands of casualties, on both sides, before ending in a United Nations mandated ceasefire followed by Russian mediation.