Pakistan strongly condemns US drone attack in North Waziristan

Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned U.S. drone attack in North Waziristan tribal region which killed at least four people yesterday.

A U.S. spy aircraft fired missiles on a house in Datta Khel town, 35 kilometres, west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.

“Such unilateral attacks are in contravention of International Law and counterproductive to the stability of this country,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

“The Government of Pakistan has maintained its position that drone strikes are violative of its territorial integrity and sovereignty,” a statement said.

The statement said that such attacks also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations.

“The Government of Pakistan calls upon the US Government to stop such attacks based on mutual respect and established international norms,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The statement comes days after former President Pervez Musharraf admitted last week that he had secretly granted permission to the U.S. on a “few occasions” to carry out drone strikes inside Pakistan.

Pakistan officially says that no approval has ever been given to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to operate drones.

Musharraf told CNN on Thursday that permission was granted “only on very few occasions where target was absolutely isolated and had no chance of collateral damage”.

He put the number of such instances at “maybe two or three times only”, adding hese strikes were discussed within the military and intelligence establishment and cleared only “if there was no time for our own SOTF [Special Operations Task Force] and military to act”.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Apr 15 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.