Pakistan condemns as drone strikes continue with impunity

Pakistan reiterates that the drone strikes are a violation of its sovereignty and are counter-productive.

ISLAMABAD: Just days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told the United Nations General Assembly that the use of armed drones in the border areas of Pakistan is a continued violation of Pakistan’s territorial integrity, the US conducted multiple drone attacks in the tribal regions of Pakistan.

The attacks prompted the government to once again strongly condemn the strikes in North Waziristan conducted on September 29 and 30.

A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs read that these unilateral strikes are a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity and that Pakistan has repeatedly emphasised the importance of bringing an immediate end to drone strikes.

In his UN address on Friday, Nawaz had said that drone strikes result in “casualties of innocent civilians and is detrimental to our resolve and efforts to eliminate extremism and terrorism from Pakistan.”

The Prime Minister said that he has urged the United States of America to cease these strikes, so that we could avert further casualties and suffering, a call that seems to have gone unheeded in Washington.

However, the government’s statement released on Monday remained rooted in its oft repeated stance that drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights and humanitarian implications. “Such strikes also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations.”

The statement added that the strikes also had a have a “negative impact on the mutual desire of both countries to forge a cordial and cooperative relationship and to ensure peace and stability in the region.”

Multiple drone strikes in successive days have killed at least nine people and injured several others.