Washington/Islamabad, July 1(ANI): The United States is not complying with Pakistan's demands that American personnel abandon the Shamsi air base used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to stage drone attacks against militants, according to US officials.
US personnel have neither left the Shamsi air base in Balochistan, nor there is any plan for them to do so, a US official familiar with the matter told a foreign news agency.
"That base is neither vacated nor being vacated," the Dawn quoted the official, as telling the news agency. The information was confirmed by a second US official.
On Wednesday, Pakistan's Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar had said that the US had been asked to stop using the base for drone strikes and vacate it.
Earlier, the Financial Times had quoted Mukhtar as saying that Pakistan had already stopped US drone flights from the air base, but despite his statements, the situation at Shamsi remains unclear.
A US military official said that no American military personnel had ever been stationed at the base, but the drone programme in Pakistan is run by the CIA, and the official declined to comment on that, the report said.
Pakistani military officials confirmed that the US had been asked to vacate the base, but would not comment on when the request had been made or whether the Americans had complied, the report added.
But Lieutenant General (retired) Abdul Qadir Baluch, a member of parliament who represents the area, said that US officials were still at the base, according to the report.
A senior Pakistani military official was quoted as saying that when US forces first launched counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan provided Americans two bases in Jaccobabad and Shamsi.
The Jacobabad base has been vacated a long time ago, but the Shamsi base, which was for logistic purpose, is still with them, the official said, adding that US officials are vacating it now. (ANI)
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