Sovereignty mantra aside: US drones hit militant compound in North Waziristan
In a first strike since the reopening of Nato transit routes by Pakistan, US pilot-less aircraft hit targets in the North Waziristan tribal agency on Friday, killing several suspected militants.
The latest attack is in clear defiance of a Pakistani parliamentary resolution which called for an end to drone strikes and a public apology from US for the unblocking of the ground lines of communication for Nato troops.
Last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said ‘sorry’ to Pakistan over the deaths of over two dozen Pakistani troops in a Nato air raid in the Salala area of Mohmand Agency last year. Drone strikes, however, remain a bone of contention between the two countries.
Three remotely-piloted US aircraft fired a total of six missiles on a compound belonging to a group of militants, led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, in the Zawai Sedgai area, about 60 kilometres west of Miramshah, in Datta Khel Tehsil, an official told The Express Tribune.
The first strike killed nine militants, three more were killed in a second attack when militants drove to the site to recover bodies, and a third drone killed three more five minutes later, a Peshawar-based senior security official told AFP.
The official who spoke to The Express Tribune said that at least 15 suspected militants were killed in these strikes. Local sources, however, put the number of dead militants at 21.
Officials said the drone struck when the militants had gathered to send fighters to Afghanistan.
Datta Khel is considered to be a stronghold of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a direct descendent of the legendry fighter from Waziristan Faqir of Ipi.
Gul Bahadur is said to have close links with the Haqqani network, the deadly Taliban group which the US blames for most attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan.
Last month, Hafiz Gul Bahadur banned polio vaccination in North Waziristan saying that his group would not allow vaccination drives until the US called off the drone campaign.
His associate in the neighbouring South Waziristan, Maulvi Nazir, has also followed suit and banned polio vaccination in the region under his control.
(Read: Why drones won’t work)
(ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AGENCIES)
Published in The Express Tribune, July 7th, 2012.
COMMENTS (20)
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Pakistan goverment has to teach people lessons ..who support these terrorist..and also those people who go and chop the head of pakistani police..if they cant do that..atleast help the internationinal countries to solve the problem.. There appears some leaders who want to make pakistan a place of terrorist..Ok why dont you all sit in that town..so that the international countries around the world can take care of this problem
@Sadruddin Mitha: Do you think world is a fool ? I mean what happens when the worlds best terrorist hide in one area..in the world..Are these countries having no right to go after the terrorist.. Dont try to be smart and cunning ..This sort of problems will easily be sorted..now Usa is in right track If USA Cant solve it..Do you think pakistan goverment can solve this problem.. It has to be combination work of pakistani goverment and usa goverment.. who will have to solve this problem..and this time for ever So please dont try to hide terrorist in your country..
Seems like Drones are pakistan's national birds. Anyway, jinnah would have been proud today.
Polio eradication is entirely a different issue which must continue under all circumstances. It is quite obvious that an arrogant super power like US will never abandon drone attacks even if hundreds of innocent people are killed in the process. It will be prudent for Pakistan to show patience and wait for an appropriate opportunity. If Pakistan cannot oppose US it should also not become its protege. This will at least save Pakistan from America's repeated betrayal. Pakistan is a country which cannot be ignored by the world due to its strategic location and its 180 million people. The history will repeat itself and sooner or later the world attention has to get back to Central Asia in which Pakistan is destined to play a key role.
First Acknowledgment Of Nato Gift From Uncle.
Reading comments here I reach the conclusion that Drones Spread Polio. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I really recommend everyone to read the second article and forward it to influential people, its our kids they are talking about in these statistics:
the Polio Global Eradication Initiative’s own statistics, informing that up to 180 vaccinated children in India fall a prey to VAPP each year. This stands at a hair-raising incidence 3 to 4 times higher than polio caused by the wild polio virus. The medicine seems deadlier than the disease itself. Or to say, the medicine is the disease.
In Pakistan too, the threat of polio vaccine is not going entirely unreported. Last month, Anthony Gucciardi revealed in his article, published in Natural Society, that close to 80% of recent polio cases are reported among children who had been vaccinated for polio. This is a shockingly high figure: of 136 polio cases, 107 were those vaccinated for the disease.
Well these polio vaccinations aren't as good as people want them to seem. The oral drops have been banned in the US but are still administred to Pakistani, Indian and Nigerian kids. Many kids have been paralyzed by them (the drops themselves) and living strains of polio are now in the drinking water of many big cities. And though 3 doses of drops are the recommended the kids here get the dose over and over, and thus being giving 'stunned' but living viruses over and over again....
See for ref.:
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article3497489.ece
And even better with a focus on pakistans issue:
http://greenheritagenews.com/whos-polio-vaccine-causing-polio-in-children/
There is one law which holds good; might is right. Human rights, civilization, democracy lectures and all that stuff coming from westerners is all crap. Americans will also be at the receiving end of the things some day, even if it comes hundred years ago but the seeds they are sowing today, they'll be the ones reaping!
Long live drones & USA
Shame on ET for saying that conflicting number of casualties are reported........Drone once attacked and when people were providing help to those injured a second attack took place...........
May Allah distribute the sin of these killings equally among all those supporting this crime
Ahhh the perfect return gift from THANKLESS AMERICA.... We gifted NATO supply on their Independence day and they have slapped on our face and will say DO MORE... Kudos !
@Solomon2: Does any UN resolution apply to NATO and the US's willful handing over of Afghan territory to the TTP?
“The latest attack is in clear defiance of a Pakistani parliamentary resolution which called for an end to drone strike -”
Well the agreement to open the GLOC was silent about the drones. It is your negotiating team that could not get this issue agreed by US. The US will follow what they agreed o to nothing else.
On a daily basis our sovereignty is nakedly transgressed and too many are butchered beyond recognition. will apex court will show the courage to call Govt and Army to explain what is going on behind the scenes ? we are spending major chunk for our external security but can not protect Kakul. so what use spending huge some of money if we are dormant when they strike at will and escape. Is there some hidden game being played with |Pakistan and its people who have no word to day in this democracy and are made to run for a bucket of water, our need is water and power and not nuclear arsenal. we can not survive even as animals without water what to talk of humans
I suppose this is the exclamation point at the end of the Pakistan/USA negotiation deal?
"The latest attack is in clear defiance of a Pakistani parliamentary resolution which called for an end to drone strike -"
The problem is that under UNSCR 1373 Pakistan has the binding sovereign obligation to eliminate terrorists from its territory. No action to do so means no sovereignty claim is legally binding when other nations take actions against terrorists instead.
No polio vaccination until no drones. Who loses, shall we have drones as well as polio!!! Our revered religious fanatics mind doesn't go beyond this.