ISLAMABAD, March 20: More than 1,000 Pakistanis have been recruited to serve in the Bahrain National Guards, learnt on Sunday.The recruitment has been made through the military-run Bahria Foundation and Fauji Foundation, which train the selected personnel before sending them to Bahrain.

Sources said that although the recruitment process had started much before the eruption of the current unrest in Bahrain, authorities have been continuing the process. The two organisations have been asked to complete the training process as early as possible.

They said that interviews and tests of thousands of candidates had been conducted by a team comprising Bahraini officials and an American instructor and the recruits are likely to leave the country in a month or so.

Bahria Foundation's Managing Director Admiral Mehmood A. Khan said the recruitment had nothing to do with the ongoing unrest in Bahrain.

“We have been asked to recruit 850 people and 150 to 200 others will be inducted through Fauji Foundation,” he said.

“We have facilitated the recruitment with a view to providing employment to Pakistanis,” he added.