Intelligence

CIA station head leaves Pakistan over security threats

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, Dec 18, IRNA -- Head of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Islamabad has been recalled by US authorities over security threats, local media reported Friday.

Quoting an unidentified US embassy official, Geo Television reported that the CIA chief in charge in Islamabad was facing a case in Pakistani police station due to drone strikes.

On Monday, a Pakistani tribesman lodged a complaint with the police in Islamabad, demanding the registration of a case against the CIA station chief Jonathan Banks for the drone attacks in his locality and the subsequent deaths.

Kareem Khan, a resident of North Waziristan tribal region, told the police that a CIA-operated drone fired missiles at his house on the night of December 31, 2009, which killed his son Zainullah and brother Asif Iqbal.

“This is the victory of our stand, as they (U.S.) are killing Pakistanis. We will also move the U.S. courts to seek compensation for the killings of innocent people and to stop these drone strikes,” lawyer for the complainant barrister Shehzad Akbar said.

A group of affected people from North Waziristan staged a two-day sit-in in Islamabad last week to draw the world attention towards the killings of civilians in drone strikes.

A US rights group CIVIC, last week released a report which also said that mostly the Pakistani civilians are getting killed in the countless US drone strikes.

Police in Islamabad, however, did not register the case against the CIA official and sent the application to the Prosecution Branch for legal advice.

Police say that there are some legal complications in the application and the Prosecution Department has been approached for legal advice.

The complainant had also served a legal notice on the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the CIA Director Leon Panetta, through his counsel on November 30 this year, demanding 500 million US dollars as compensation.

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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30128551