India, Oct. 11 -- Pakistan has stationed fighter jets, drones, an air defence system and thousands of soldiers in Saudi Arabia. On 5 October, at an emergency meeting in Riyadh, it joined Saudi Arabia and Turkey in agreeing to put their collective defence commitments into practice at once, and to ensure the rapid deployment of agreed forces in the kingdom, as Saudi Arabia backs an offensive against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis. Islamabad calls the mission defensive, but its defence minister has since confirmed that Pakistani forces are already supporting the Saudi campaign.

The build-up began in April. On 11 April, as American and Iranian delegations opened their first direct talks since 1979 in Islamabad, Saudi Arabia announced that Paki...