Many unanswered questions

Neither Pakistan nor US has been able to provide convincing answers to the oddities that surround the Nato attack.

Nearly a week has elapsed since deadly Nato air strikes killed 24 Pakistan Army personnel at a border checkpoint in Gorai Parai in Mohmand Agency but, in that time, rather than getting a clearer picture of exactly what happened that night, we have only unanswered questions. Both sides have become increasingly rigid in their postures, with the US claiming that the killings were accidental and in response to enemy fire on them, while Pakistan is insisting that the attack was a deliberate and grave violation of its sovereignty. What neither Pakistan nor the US has been able to do is provide convincing answers to the many oddities that surround the November 26 attack. Why, for example, did the system Pakistan and Nato have in place, where they inform each other of any military activity that they will be conducting within 10 kilometres of the border, break down? Was it because the US no longer trusts Pakistan and fears that it may pass on this information to militants?

Even if the initial attack was the result of a misunderstanding, the US has so far not provided a convincing explanation, or indeed any justification at all, for why Nato forces carried out two separate rounds of air strikes. Even if the second round was the result of Pakistani troops returning fire, by then our military had informed Nato that they were firing on regular troops and not Taliban militants. There is still not enough information to draw a definite conclusion, but the only rational explanation for this is that the Nato forces knew they were firing on Pakistani soldiers but did not care, most likely because they thought the Pakistani personnel had fired on them first.

Just as with the May 2 Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden, this incident also raises questions about the capability of our military. As the guardians of our territory and sovereignty, shouldn’t they have a plan in place to fight back when under attack? Just as our radar system failed during the US Navy SEAL raid, the helpless soldiers at the check post never received any air support that might have helped ward off the Nato forces and save their lives. The US will be carrying out its own enquiry into the incident which should help explain how this attack took place but we will need an investigation of our own to find out how we were so helpless in the face of the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2011.