Pakistan: Suspected US drone strike; casualties feared

A suspected US drone targeted a boat in the waters of the Kabul river on Saturday, DawnNews reported. Sources said five people may have died in the attack. Pakistan condemns drone attacks and says the attacks violate Pakistan’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”. Pakistan moreover maintains that drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights and humanitarian implications apart from setting dangerous precedents in inter-state relations. The attack comes days after the US warned Pakistan that coalition support reimbursements and security assistance could be held up if land routes remained closed for movement of US and Nato cargo to and from Afghanistan.

The warning came in US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel’s Monday visit to Pakistan during which he met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif. Hagel’s trip, which is also the first by an American defence secretary to Pakistan in four years, followed US decision to suspend the use of land routes through Pakistani territory in the wake of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf’s protests against drone attacks.