Islamabad: Nawaz Sharif, who is set to become prime minister of Pakistan, on Friday expressed strong reservations over US drone attacks inside Pakistani territory. The drone strikes were not only violation of Pakistan's sovereignty but also against international laws and UN charter, reported Xinhua citing Sharif, the chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), in a statement.
The concern was conveyed to the US Charge d'affaires in Islamabad, said a spokesperson for Sharif.
The statement came a day after the Pakistani Taliban withdrew ceasefire offer as an unmanned drone killed Waliur Rehman, a Taliban leader, in North Waziristan tribal region near Afghan border.
The Taliban had offered peace talks to the new government, raising hopes for an end to the ongoing Taliban insurgency. But the US drone strike has now diminished the chance of dialogue. Rehman was believed to be a strong supporter of peace talks, according to Taliban leaders....
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05:50 AM, Jun 01, 2013
Islamabad: A US drone attack killed at least six suspected terrorists in Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday, the first such strike since the country's General Elections and the announcement of a new policy for the use of the CIA-operated spy planes by President Barack Obama. The spy plane targeted a house in Chashma Pul area of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency, early on Wednesday...
05:22 PM, May 29, 2013
Islamabad: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has acknowledged his regime secretly cleared US drone strikes, becoming the first serving or retired Pakistani official to publicly admit that the country had a deal on attacks by the CIA-operated spy planes. Musharraf said there was no blanket agreement with the US on the controversial drone campaign and that his regime had cleared missile strikes "only on very few occasions where the target...
03:55 PM, Apr 12, 2013
Al Qaida's No 2 in Yemen died of wounds sustained in a US drone attack in 2012 in southern Yemen, the country's official news agency and a security official said on Thursday. Saeed al-Shihri, a Saudi national who fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, was wounded in a missile attack in the southern city of Saada on October 28, according to...
08:18 AM, Jan 25, 2013
Islamabad: The roars celebrating the re-election of US President Barack Obama on television give Mohammad Rehman Khan a searing headache, as years of grief and anger come rushing back. The 28-year-old Pakistani accuses the president of robbing him of his father, three brothers and a nephew, all killed in a US drone attack a month after Obama first took office. "The same person who attacked my home has gotten re-elected,"...
12:46 PM, Nov 08, 2012
New Delhi: Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan was offloaded from a US-bound flight at Toronto International airport in Canada on Friday just hours after he criticised the US for drone attacks in Pakistan's restive Waziristan region. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief was reportedly questioned for his fundraising activities and his alleged links to the Taliban. Imran later tweeted about his interrogation and stood by his critical stand on US drones....
07:19 AM, Oct 27, 2012
United Nations: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday declared at the United Nations that his country has suffered more than any other nation in the "epic struggle" against terrorism, with US drone strikes on its territory adding to complexities and it should not be asked to do more. "No country and no people have suffered more in the epic struggle against terrorism, than Pakistan," he told world leaders in...
11:46 AM, Sep 26, 2012
Washington: The US supports Pakistan's sovereignty, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, reminding Islamabad that all sovereign nations carry certain obligations like preventing threats to neighbours and the international community. "We support Pakistan's sovereignty, but we are clear that all sovereign nations carry certain obligations: to protect the human rights of their citizens, to control their territory, to prevent threats to their neighbours and the international community," Clinton told reporters...
10:37 AM, Sep 22, 2012
Islamabad: US drones targeted three militant compounds in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region on Friday killing at least 18 insurgents, just a day after Pakistan summoned a top American diplomat to lodge protest over such attacks calling them a violation of its sovereignty. The CIA-operated spy planes targeted the militant compounds in Shawal region of North Waziristan tribal agency, which has witnessed a series of drone attacks in the...
05:36 PM, Aug 24, 2012
Islamabad: Notwithstanding Taliban's insistence that militant commander Ilyas Kashmiri is dead, senior Pakistani military authorities in South Waziristan tribal region are still reluctant to confirm that he was killed in a US drone strike over a year ago. "We, on our own level, did some investigations but could not find any clue that could prove his death in the drone attack. We knew that he had arrived in Wana a...
10:48 AM, Aug 20, 2012
Islamabad: Seven militants were killed on Sunday when US drones targeted two vehicles in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region, the second such attack in the area in hours. Two CIA-operated drones fired four missiles at two vehicles carrying militants in Shawal area of North Waziristan Agency early on Sunday morning, officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels. Seven militants were killed instantly. Six members of a Taliban...
12:46 PM, Aug 19, 2012
Aspen: Pakistan's ambassador to the United States says her country will not relent from demanding that the CIA end its drone strikes. In a debate with White House war adviser Douglas Lute at the Aspen Security Forum, Sherry Rehman said drone attacks have damaged al-Qaida but are now only serving to recruit new militants. "I am not saying drones have not assisted in the war against terror, but they have...
11:57 PM, Jul 28, 2012
Washington: US military and intelligence officials are so frustrated with Pakistan's failure to stop local militant groups from attacking Americans in neighbouring Afghanistan that they have considered launching secret joint US-Afghan commando raids into Pakistan to hunt them down, officials told The Associated Press. But the idea, which US officials say comes up every couple of months, has been consistently rejected because the White House believes the chance of successfully...
05:43 PM, Jun 22, 2012
Islamabad: New ISI chief Lt Gen Zahir-ul-Islam has put off a scheduled visit to the United States due to "pressing commitments" within Pakistan, the military said on Monday. A spokesman for the Inter-Services Public Relations, the military's media arm, said Islam's visit to the US had been "postponed due his pressing commitments here". The spokesman did not give details about the commitments. "There is no other reason for postponing the...
11:26 PM, May 28, 2012
Islamabad: Al Qaeda's chief in Pakistan, who once fought in Jammu and Kashmir, was among four terrorists killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region on Thursday. Badar Mansoor, a former commander of the banned Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militant group that was active in Kashmir, was killed with three others when a spy plane fired two missiles at a compound in Miranshah, the main town of North...
04:25 PM, Feb 09, 2012
Washington: During his first ever live video conference hosted by Google+ Hangout, US President Barack Obama hit out at Pakistan for its inability to fight terrorism. Obama was responding to a war veteran's question but defended his government's move to continue giving Islamabad millions in aid. "When it comes to the fight against terror, Pakistan either lacks resources or the will," said Obama, saying America needs to pump in funds,...
11:45 AM, Jan 31, 2012
Islamabad: A day after reports that Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan, the militant group has said he is alive and the speculation about his death was a ruse to locate his whereabouts. Unnamed Pakistani security and intelligence officials were quoted by a section of the media on Sunday as saying that Mehsud had died in a drone attack in Dattakhel...
02:30 PM, Jan 16, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan and China have concluded a crucial USD 1.58 billion currency swap deal and multi-million dollar pacts to upgrade the strategic Karakoram Highway and a power plant, amid severe strains in US-Pak ties. The two "all-weather" strategic partners signed six bilateral agreements, including the 10-billion-yuan currency swap deal between China's central bank and State Bank of Pakistan, on Friday. The pact were inked during a visit to Islamabad by...
05:09 PM, Dec 24, 2011
United Nations: The Iranian UN mission said on Friday it complained to the UN Security Council about a US reconnaissance drone that it says was flying over eastern Iran before the military took "forceful action" against it. "I have the honor to draw your kind attention to the provocative and covert operations against the Islamic Republic of Iran by the United States government, which have increased and intensified in recent...
02:41 AM, Dec 10, 2011
Islamabad: Pakistan's top leadership on Wednesday said the US had been asked to vacate Shamsi airbase, believed to be used by CIA-operated drones, by December 11 in the aftermath of a cross-border NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Prime Minister Gilani told the media in Karachi that the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee's office had sent a letter to the US asking for Shamsi airbase to be vacated by...
11:16 PM, Nov 30, 2011
