Islamabad: The Pakistan Army is holding a month-long exercise in the Thar Desert in Sindh province to prepare for conflict in an extreme desert environment, the military said in a statement.

The exercise, codenamed 'Jidar-ul-Hadeed', began on January 28 and is scheduled to conclude on February 28, it said in a statement last night.

"The four-week long defensive manoeuvre exercise is aimed at validating the concept of defence in deserts," the statement said.

Troops of Karachi Corps are practicing tactical drills and procedures as part of the exercise.

The Army said that the exercises are being conducted in extreme desert conditions, 74 kilometres ahead of Chhor in Sindh under conventional operations.

The Army has a Desert Warfare School at Chhor, which is 165 km from Hyderabad, Sindh. The school was established in 1987 to promote desert warfare.

The Thar Desert is an arid region of over 200,000 sq kms, which forms a natural boundary running along the border between India and Pakistan.

On Friday, a week-long multinational naval exercise hosted by Pakistan started in the Arabian Sea.

With the participation of some 45 countries in Aman-2021 from February 11-16, including the US, Russia, China, and Turkey, the drill - a biannual affair since 2007 - began with a flag-raising ceremony, media reports said.