Big tribesmen rally demands halt to US drone attacks
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, Jan 24, IRNA -- A large number of tribesmen Sunday marched in a main city in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region and demanded halt to US drone strikes in the area.
The demonstration in the town of Mir Ali was the second in the region in three days as over 2,000 demonstrated in Miranshah, the agency’s headquarters, on Friday.
The Sunday’s rally coincided with two strikes by the US drone aircraft in Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, which killed six people.
Two missiles were fired on a vehicle, carrying suspected militants, as they arrived at a house at Doga Madakhel village, official sources in the region said. The house and vehicle were destroyed, tribesmen said.
Two persons were killed in the second strike in the area when the missiles hit a motorcycle, witnesses said.
There was no report about the identity of those killed. A tribesman in Miranshah said on phone that he had seen six pilotless drones before and after the strikes.
According to reports, the tribesmen in Mir Ali closed all markets and transports were off the road as a protest against the strikes.
They marched for a kilometer in the town, chanting anti-US slogans and demanding immediate halt to the drone strikes.
Speakers including religious clerics, tribal elders, traders and students leaders condemned the drone strikes and said that innocent people were targeted in the attacks.
President of the Traders Action Committee of Mir Ali Bazar, Abdul Hakim, told the rally that the US drone strikes have made the people physiologically sick as everyone is in a state of fear when the drones started flying over the area.
American pilotless aircraft regularly fire rockets in Waziristan as the US officials say the area is the launching pad for cross the border attacks into Afghanistan. Tribesmen say that innocent people are targeted by the US aircraft.
Chief of the Students Council Abul Rauf said ‘the Americans do not spare public places’.
The speakers also lashed out at the government for what they called its weaknesses to adopt a firm stand on the issue.
The CIA considers Waziristan as the home of Taliban leaders Hakimullah Mehsood, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Mulla Nazir, who are fighting against US and NATO forces across the borer in Afghanistan.
The Taliban-linked Haqqani network, fighting against US forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, is also thought to be active in the region, the US officials say.
A number of high-profile militant leaders, including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud were killed in the drone attack in August 2009.
**1422
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30203513
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