Anger mounting in Pakistan against US drone attacks
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, Nov 16, IRNA -- Majority in Pakistan is against the US strategy of carrying out drone strikes on Pakistani soil and considers the move as a sheer violation of country’s sovereignty.
The drone attacks on Pakistan are increasing with rise of every new day. Many recent polls in Pakistan show strong opposition among Pakistani citizens to the drone strikes.
Pakistanis have demanded that parliament must take immediate notice of drone strikes and force the government to review the entire policy in the region.
The US has made a series of attacks on targets in Pakistan since 2004 using drones. Most of these attacks are on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Area in Northwest Pakistan.
The gap between drone attacks is becoming less and some times US drones strike their “targets” more then two or even more then three or four times in a day.
Since January 2010, the US has carried out over 80 drone strikes killing hundreds of people.
A large number of Pakistani has demanded that America must stop drone attacks on Pakistan which creating hatred among the people and causing severe difficulties to the government to maintain peace and order.
The tensions between Pakistan and US are also heightening because of the reported US criticism of Pakistan's failure to launch a ground offensive in North Waziristan, tribal area.
Waziristan is the home of Taliban leaders Hakimullah Mehsood, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Mulla Nazir, who are fighting against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani last month had stated that “Pakistan’s patience has already run out on the U.S. drone strikes”.
Prime Minister Gilani disclosed that former president Pervez Musharraf had allowed the United States to carry out drone flights in tribal areas for reconnaissance.
The drone program has generated public anger in Pakistan, and some counterinsurgency experts wonder whether it does more harm than good.
Top US officials consider these strikes very successful and believe that the senior Al-Qaeda leadership has been decimated by these strikes
A number of high-profile militant leaders, including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud were killed in the drone attack in August last year.
Analysts opine that it is the operation of US drone attack from the soil of Pakistan which has seriously aggravated the challenge of terrorism to Pakistan.
Pakistan has repeatedly protested these attacks as they are an infringement of its sovereignty and because civilian deaths have also resulted, including women and children, which has further angered the Pakistani government and people
On June 3, 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) delivered a report sharply critical of US tactics. The report asserted that the US government has failed to keep track of civilian casualties of its military operations, including the drone attacks.
Majority of Pakistanis believe that war on terror has practically been an American war in which the Pakistani government went beyond limits of subservience to the US.
There is a lot of pressure on the Pakistani government from the public to come out of the alliance with the US in war on terror.
People say that the United States is following an unrealistic policy and would not be allowed to implement its agenda in Pakistan.
They say that US would eventually shift the centre of gravity of the war from Afghanistan to Pakistan and move militarily into Pakistani territory.
Some Pakistani Senators from religious parties have called the drone strikes as ‘an arrogant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty’.
They said, “this continuous aggression against Pakistan amounts to a virtual declaration of war” and termed the government’s silence on the issue as “criminal and intolerable”.
Many in Pakistan believe that Washington is not trusting its security forces and why the US is not sharing intelligence with Pakistani authorities on the presence of al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
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