Drone strikes immoral, insane: Imran Khan

Islamabad, July 22 (ANI): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has said drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia or any other part of the world are insane, immoral, illegal and counter-productive.

"Of drones, I think two words - it's immoral and it's insane. Immoral because you cannot justify eliminating suspects, and insane, because it's counter-productive. It turns more people against the U.S., hatred grows and the beneficiaries of this insanity are the militants," the Daily Times quoted Khan, as saying.

"It is too criminal to justify these acts, which are a violation of all humanitarian laws. You can't eliminate suspects, their families, their children and anyone else who is killed and pass it off as collateral damage. All it does is aid the militancy," he added.

Khan also opposed the drone strikes against Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen and Somalia, where similar tactics were being deployed.

"I don't know how anyone presses buttons and eliminates human beings on information that might or might not be correct. How can this be civilised?" he said.

Khan said there was no evidence to show that missiles fired from faceless drones were destroying militant networks. Instead, he said they were prompting more tribesmen to join various branches of the Pakistani Taliban.

"Things have gone from bad to worse. The only way to resolve the problem is to withdraw the drones, pull the Pakistani Army out of the Tribal Areas and let the people who live there weed out the Al-Qaeda extremists and other foreign militants," he added.

Khan said he intends to expose the war that has been hidden from the public scrutiny, as it is happening in an area that is too dangerous for most foreign journalists to access.

"Einstein defined madness as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Eight years we've been bombing them and what are the results? This is not the way. The way to do it is to win the people to your side," he said. (ANI)