Islamabad, Oct 5(ANI): The Conflict Monitoring Centre (CMC), an Islamabad-based independent research organisation that monitors drone attacks and anti-state insurgencies in South Asia, has accused the United States of using drone strikes "for its punitive approach towards Pakistan."
According to its monthly report on drone attacks in Pakistan, the CIA carried out four drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas during the month of September, killing as many as 22 people and injuring 9 others.
The first month of General David Petraeus as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) saw a significant reduction in drone attacks, but a sudden rise in number of drone attacks was observed after the emergence of Pak-US row over Kabul terror attacks, the report said.
"Outgoing US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen accused Pakistan of supporting Haqqani network, which is blamed for the attacks in Kabul. His controversial statement created tension between the two allies," the report said.
"Until September 23, CIA had carried out only one drone attack but after the emergence of tension between the two countries three attacks were carried out during the last seven days of the month. It clearly shows that drone attacks are not merely attached with militant activities. Instead, United States uses this lethal weapon for its punitive approach towards Pakistan," it added.
Mullen, the then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said at a Senate hearing last month that the Haqqani network of terrorists was "a veritable arm" of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and that the Pakistani intelligence agency had directed the militant group's recent attacks at US installations in Kabul.
During the year 2011, the CIA has carried out a number of attacks, which were punitive in nature, the report said.
It noted that an exclusive report by a foreign news agency had revealed that some of the drone attacks were apparently in the nature of the CIA's revenge acts against the Pakistani Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The infamous drone attack of March 17, which killed 40 innocent tribesmen attending a tribal Jirga, it now transpires, was indeed a revenge act for the detention of CIA operative Raymond Davis for 7 weeks in custody in Lahore for killing two Pakistanis, it said.
Apart from above mentioned attack on a tribal Jirga, the CIA has carried out a drone attack after every high level meeting between Pakistani and American officials during the year 2011, said the CMC report.
The latest such strike occurred on August 2, 2011 while the US Special Ambassador to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Marc Grossman, was visiting Islamabad, it added. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
