New Delhi, May 2 (PTI): Going against the state decision on foreign and security policy, private agencies have been recruiting hundreds of ex-servicemen, including officers up to the rank of divisional commander, for deployment in Iraq.

However, the first set of casualties among them has raised a debate on the legality of their presence in the war-torn zone.

Security agencies are tight-lipped about the numbers already drafted, but sources said they could be around 1,500 with the retired commissioned and non-commissioned officers being used to guard key installations like oil wells, refineries, supply depots and shore-based facilities for US and British forces.

The men are being offered good incentives and salaries.

The deployment of ex-servicemen, reportedly made at the instance of western recruitment agencies, comes even as the Centre has decided not to send troops to Iraq unless there is an explicit UN mandate.

Top defence ministry officials argued that there was no ban on recruitment of ex-servicemen and restrictions could only be imposed if there was a travel ban advisory from the Indian mission in Baghdad.

But with casualties reported in their ranks and fresh incidents of kidnappings of foreign nationals taking place, officials said the government would have a rethink and ask the agencies to observe caution.

“Ex-servicemen cannot seek re-employment during the reserve liability of five years. However, after that there is no check,” a senior army official said.

The deaths and other dangers lurking in Iraq have got the recruiting private security agencies worried as well.

Captain Swaran Salaria of the Mumbai-based Trig Guard Force said further deployments have been held back.

“Though there were no reasons to worry so far, in the last three months things have gone bad and out of control. There have been attacks by locals. I have decided to wait till the threat perceptions lower down drastically,” he said.

Brigadier Mohinder Singh, president of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Association, urged the government to bar these agencies from sending former soldiers to war-torn zones.

“When the government itself is cautious in sending troops to Iraq, how can the country allow these ex-servicemen to be deployed there, (and) that, too, armed so lightly?” Singh asked.