Another Haqqani droned, in Hangu

 

Pakistan protests as US cuts deep into ‘sovereignty’ | Sirajuddin’s top adviser Ahmad Jan among nine dead | KPK CM calls it an open ‘aggression’ | Asks Aziz to explain his statement about US assurance

HANGU/ISLAMABAD - A US drone strike in northwest Pakistan early Thursday morning killed nine people including a senior leader of the dreaded Haqqani network, a militant group affiliated with Afghan Taliban, in only the second such strike in settled areas outside the country’s tribal districts.
The attack is the first drone strike since Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed on Nov 1 and it comes just a day after a senior Pakistani official said Washington has assured it will not make drone hits while Islamabad tries to engage Taliban in peace talks.
Pakistan government responded with issuing a traditional condemnation stating the attack, at a seminary in Tal tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Hangu district, to be violation of its sovereignty and international laws.
Maulvi Ahmad Jan, an adviser to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the feared head of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network, was said to be killed when an unmanned US aircrafts fired four missiles targeted two rooms of Madrassa Muftahul Quran, where reportedly some leaders of Haqqani group were staying.
Eight others, mostly students of the seminary in Bejigar Tandaro village, were also injured and they were taken to Tal tehsil hospital. Local sources said that the drones continued to hover over the area after the attack that came at around 4:30am, creating panic among the locals and causing delay in relief activities.
“Yes it’s true, we lost another valuable figure this morning,” a senior Haqqani official told Reuters. A source with Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security intelligence agency confirmed Maulvi Ahmad Jan’s death. A Pakistani intelligence source said that Sirajuddin Haqqani himself was spotted at the same seminary just two days earlier.
Besides Ahmad Jan, three others killed in the attack – namely Maulana Hameedullah, Karim and Maulana Gul Marjan – were stated to be from Paktia province of Afghanistan and affiliated with the Haqqani network. Another of the deceased, Maulana Abdur Rehman, was a resident of Doaba Kurram Agency, while one Maulana Abdullah reportedly belonged to Sadda area of Kurram Agency. The rest three dead were students of the seminary.
Haqqani network is one of the main enemies of US-led forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, frequently launching attacks on foreign troops. But it has been under considerable strain this month since its chief financier, Nasiruddin Haqqani, was shot dead in Islamabad on November 11. No one claimed responsibility for that shooting.
“Jan, in his 60s, was the spiritual leader and head teacher of the Haqqani network,” one source told AFP, adding that Jan was a member of the group’s ruling council. “He was receiving people who were coming to condole the death of Nasiruddin Haqqani because followers of were not able to meet any other member of Haqqani family.”
The US has been alleging that Haqqanis have hideouts in Pakistan’s mountainous North Waziristan region, an area that have faced most of the US drone strikes. Sources said that the attacked seminary in the Tandar area belonged to one Qari Noor Muhammad, a previously unknown figure, who set up it seven years ago. It was not clear if Qari Noor, a religious figure from North Waziristan, was present in the seminary at the time of attack.
A Haqqani source said the seminary was an important rest point for members fighting in Afghanistan’s restive Khost province. “The seminary served as a base for the network where militants fighting across the border came to stay and rest, as the Haqqani seminaries in the tribal areas were targeted by drones,” the source told AFP. The area was earlier designated as a refugee camp for Afghans displaced by war in their country and it is still predominantly inhabited by Afghan nationals.
It was the second US drone strike in KPK, as the first strike in this province was carried out in Bannu in 2008. Only the other day PM’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz had told a Senate Committee that US had assured Pakistan of not conducting drone strikes while Pakistan is in the process of peace talks with the TTP.
Foreign Office Spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry in a statement on Thursday said that these strikes are violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He said there is a consensus in Pakistan that drone strikes must end. He said Pakistan has been raising its concern with the US administration and at the United Nations.
Aizaz said PM Nawaz during his recent visit to the US had raised the issue with President Barack Obama and other senior US leaders. He said these drone strikes have a negative impact on Pakistan’s efforts to bring peace and stability within the country and the region. Such strikes, he added, also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations.
On the other hand, KPK Chief Minister Pervez Khattak also protested aga-inst Thursday’s drone strike.
He said due to the ill-conceived foreign policy of the federal government the drone strikes being continuously carried out in the tribal areas have now been extended to settled areas of KP, which was an open aggression against Pakistan. He demanded Sartaj Aziz to explain his position to the nation viz a viz his recent policy statement.

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