World | Pakistan
Strong protest over latest drone attack
Pakistan strongly protested on Thursday to the United States over a missile attack by a US drone, the latest in a series of such raids widely denounced in the country as violation of national sovereignty.
- By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
- Published: 23:35 November 20, 2008
Islamabad: Pakistan strongly protested on Thursday to the United States over a missile attack by a US drone, the latest in a series of such raids widely denounced in the country as violation of national sovereignty.
American Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson was called to the Foreign Office and a "strong protest" was lodged over Wednesday's missile attack in Bannu district that killed several people, officials said.
The Bannu strike was the first in a town outside the semi-autonomous tribal belt where the US unmanned spy aircraft have carried out about 20 attacks since September, mainly in North Waziristan region along the Afghan border.
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir conveyed "Pakistan's strong condemnation to the ambassador," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a media briefing.
The ambassador was told that these attacks were undermining public support for the government's counter-terrorism efforts and must be stopped.
The spokesman said the American envoy assured that Pakistan's concern and position would be conveyed to the US government.
Speaking in parliament, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani termed the attacks "intolerable" and expressed the hope that such acts would end once president-elect Barack Obama's government was in place in the US.
Pledge
Gilani vowed that the present government would not compromise the country's sovereignty and integrity. He said the incursions would be controlled through diplomatic efforts and international lobbying.
The prime minister emphatically denied there was an understanding with the United States allowing missile attacks inside Pakistani territory.
"Being chief executive of this country, I want to assure you that there is no understanding," he said told the National Assembly. He said it was not known whether the Pervez Musharraf regime had any understanding with the US.
There was no record about any understanding, he said, but pointed out that Musharraf's era was "one-man show".
He said the National Security Adviser was in constant touch with his US counterpart and conveying concern of Pakistani nation. "These [attacks] are adding to our problems...they are intolerable and we condemn them," Gilani said.
Lawmakers angrily denounced the attack during a session of the National Assembly yesterday, asking the government to to take concrete steps to bring the "wanton violation" of national sovereignty to an end.
Leader of the opposition Nisar Ali Khan, who is from former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N, demanded that Pakistan should stop overland supplies to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) forces in Afghanistan through its territory. Khan also called for raising the issue of attacks inside Pakistani territory at the United Nations.
PML-N legislator and PML-N information secretary Ahsan Iqbal said the Pakistan People's Party government was following in the footsteps of Musharraf as far as the war on terror was concerned.
Pakistani troops act
Bajaur Pakistani troops, backed by artillery and warplanes, killed 24 militants, including 11 foreigners, in clashes during the last 24 hours in the Bajaur tribal region, near the Afghan border, a paramilitary spokesman said yesterday. There was no independent verification of the casualties.
Swat Sixteen militants were killed in an airstrike on a school building used by militants in Swat's Matta town, a military official said. Seven women and a man were killed when Pakistani artillery fire hit two houses in Khawazakhela district in Swat, police said. Taliban militants shot dead a man and flogged five others in public in their stronghold of Matta in the valley, for using and selling narcotics, police said. Separately, militants blew up five barber shops with explosives in the main town of Mingora.
Mohmand Two civilians were killed when a mortar bomb fired by Pakistani artillery on suspected militant positions fell on a house in the Mohmand tribal region on the Afghan border, residents and administration officials said.
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