Pak PM urges top Obama aide to halt drone strikes
June 27, 2009
Pakistan’s prime minister Thursday told Washington’s visiting top security adviser that the United States must halt drone attacks on its soil, after they killed dozens of people in the northwest.
James Jones held talks with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as part of a short regional tour that has already taken in neighbouring Afghanistan to assess the United States’ new strategy in the region.
The Barack Obama administration has put Pakistan at the heart of a strategy to tackle al-Qaeda and other extremists who Washington says are huddled along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border plotting attacks on Western targets.
Gilani “called for stopping the drone attacks in order to ensure success of Pakistan’s strategy for isolating the militants from the tribes,” a statement issued from his office said.
Two US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal South Waziristan district on Tuesday reportedly killed about 50 people as suspected Taliban militants gathered for a funeral, military and administration officials have said.
Jones, who also met President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, in a statement made no mention of any rift over the use of drones to target militants in the lawless tribal belt.
“Together, the US and Pakistan are enhancing border cooperation, trade, energy and economic development to help Pakistanis face the challenges posed by extremists,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s army chief visited the tribal South Waziristan region Thursday, where he said a planned offensive in the area aimed to “re-establish the writ of the state”, a military statement said.
The army is wrapping up a two-month-long operation against Taliban rebels in three northwest districts, and is preparing to launch a second front against militant chief Baitullah Mehsud and his network in the lawless tribal belt.
The military statement said General Ashfaq Kayani spent the day in the semi-autonomous district on the Afghan border, where he met troops and commanders and held prayers for soldiers killed in fighting.
Source: thedailystar.net
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