Islamabad, Dec 21(ANI): The Central Intelligence Agency has stopped firing at Pakistan militants since the November 26 deadly NATO airstrike along the Afghan border to prevent aggravating already strained ties with Islamabad, Senate Defence's Committee head has said.
It is the first time that the programme has halted for 33 days, according to The Long War Journal, a website that tracks the strikes.
Tensions between Pakistan and the United States have escalated following NATO airstrikes in Mohmand Agency that killed 28 soldiers on November 26.
Pakistan had sealed its NATO supply route on the border with Afghanistan, and boycotted Taliban peace talks in Bonn as a response to the attack.
Pakistan's Defence Committee chief Javed Ashraf Qazi said he believed the lull in attacks was because the US "does not want to aggravate the situation any further."
Qazi said if the United States had a "high-level" target in its sights then, "I think they would go ahead" and launch a strike, The Daily Times reports.
Pakistan's government and army have long objected to the US drone programme.
The Long War Journal quoted an anonymous American official, as saying the pause was because another attack "push US-Pakistan relations past the point of no return."
There have been at least two other pauses in the drone programme, including when Pakistan had detained CIA contractor Raymond Davis over killing two people in the Lahore.
US officials had previously denied that the two pauses earlier this year were due to tensions with Pakistan, and said operational issues with the unmanned aircraft" were responsible for the pause.
The US drone programme aimed at targeting Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal regions along the Afghan border began in 2004. (ANI)
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