Pakistan condemns deadly US drone attack
Iran Press TV
Thu Nov 21, 2013 4:0PM
Pakistani officials have strongly condemned a US assassination drone attack that has killed five people in the country's northwestern tribal region.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that such attacks are a violation of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The statement also said the airstrikes have negative impacts on Islamabad's efforts to bring peace to the country.
"There is an across the board consensus in Pakistan that these drone strikes must end," it added.
The statement was issued hours after a US drone attack on a seminary killed at least six people in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
"Now no place is safe. The drones are now firing missiles outside the tribal areas,' provincial health minister, Shaukat Yousufzai, protested.
'It is Hangu today. Tomorrow it can be Karachi, Lahore or any other place,' he told Pakistan's Dunya TV.
Imran Khan, the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which runs the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, also called for Pakistan to block NATO supply routes to Afghanistan in response to continued drone strikes.
"If it's in our hand we will block it today. Our powers are that we can tell them that NATO supply can't pass through our province," he said.
The US carries out assassination drone strikes in several Muslim countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
It claims they target militants but many civilians have lost their lives so far in the attacks.
MRS/AB
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