Zee Media Bureau
Islamabad: Issuing a strong condemnation of a drone attack that killed a top Taliban official, Pakistan has said that the attack in North Waziristan infringed the nation’s sovereignty.
A US drone strike in Pakistan`s lawless North Waziristan tribal region yesterday killed Pakistan Taliban number 2 Wali-ur-Rehman and five other militants.
The CIA-operated spy plane targeted a house in Chashma Pul area of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency, a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants on the Afghan border, early on Wednesday morning.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry issued a statement, saying “the government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that the drone strikes are counter-productive, and claim innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law”.
A media report claimed Rehman, the deputy chief of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, was killed in the drone strike but this could not be independently confirmed.
Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said on Friday that the drone strikes were illegal and counter-productive despite the new guidelines unveiled by Obama.
According to the new policy, drone strikes can only be used to prevent imminent attacks, when the capture of a suspect is not feasible and if there is a "near certainty" that civilians will not be killed.
With PTI Inputs
