US reconnaissance drone crashes in Chaman

Security officials gather near a damaged US surveillance drone which crashed at the Pak-Afghan border on August 25, 2011. PHOTO: PPI

CHAMAN: A US spy plane crashed into Pakistani territory in Chaman, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Balochistan, on Thursday evening.

According to Express 24/7 correspondent, Mohamamd Kazim, the drone was surveying the border when it crashed near the Pishin Scouts compound in Chaman, 300 meters inside Pakistani territory.

Frontier Constabulary officials confirmed the crash and said that they had taken custody of the drone and would attempt the uncover the reason for the crash.

The official went on to say that the drone was not carrying any weapons systems and was probably for surveillance purposes.

“The unmanned aerial vehicle had two spy cameras and it crashed near the Frontier Corps (FC) headquarters in Chaman, a bordering township with Afghanistan,” an eyewitness said.

A heavy contingent of Frontier Corps and other law enforcement agencies rushed to the spot and sealed off the area and took control of the wreckage.
“The remotely controlled aircraft was not brought down by security forces and may have crashed as result of technical fault,” official sources said, adding that it was three feet wide and four feet long.

The US, which owns and operates much of the drones in this region flies both, armed and unarmed drones for a number of reasons. The Predator and Reaper models of their drones are armed with hellfire missiles, used to attack and destroy targets on either side of the border.

Pakistan and the US have been at odds with each other over the operation of drones, more so after a stealth raid by US special forces into Pakistani town of Abbottabad which killed Osama bin Laden. Pakistan has repeatedly asked US to stop flights of armed drones into its territory and that Washington either sell or transfer technology for drones to Pakistan in order to conduct effective campaign against militants in areas bordering Afghanistan.

This is the fourth US drone crash this week with two reconnaissance crafts going down in northern Afghan city of Balkh, while another drone went down to “technical fault” in Ghazni.

NATO forces or American forces had not contacted Pakistani officials in this regard till this report was filed. Nor they had demanded return of the wreckage of the UAV.

The unmanned aircraft took off from American owned Qarar Ga airbase near Spinboldak in Kandahar. No group has claimed the responsibility for incident till this report was filed.

The allied forces had also violated the Pakistan airspace in past near Bab-i-Dosti gate in Chaman and Pakistan officials also recorded their protest with NATO officials in this regard. However, it was for the first time that any American manufactured aircraft landed in Balochistan, thought, such incidents are common in Tribal areas of Pakistan.