Pakistan-US ties on razor edge after killing

Pakistani civil society activists shout slogans during a demonstration in Multan on Monday against the US drone strike in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan that killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour. (Photo: AFP)

Media reports said on Monday that Wali Muhammad, Mansour’s companion who was killed in a US drone attack on a car in Pakistan’s Nushki area late Saturday, had travelled abroad 18 times between 2006 and 2016.

Wali Muhammad first left for Iran’s Taftan on February 18, 2016 and returned to Pakistan on March 10. Then again he visited Taftan on 25 April, 2016 and returned on May 21, a Pakistani television channel claimed, citing documentary evidence.

He travelled through Karachi’s Jinnah international airport 15 times and once from Quetta airport. He travelled to Dubai via Emirates, Gulf, Shaheen, United Airline, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Iran Air. Last time, he toured Iran twice via road.

Media reports also said that the “complicated” relationship between the US and Pakistan has been thrown on “razor edge” and ties could become more “nasty” after the killing of Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in an American drone strike inside Pakistan.

Delving into the possible impact of the drone attack, the Nation said that “complicated ties between Pakistan and the US could be on course to become nasty after Osama bin Laden-style US strike deep inside Pakistan over the weekend to kill Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour”.

The US and Pakistan differ on countering Taliban, and Washington believes Islamabad was playing double-game with them, especially on Afghanistan peace, it said in the report headlined “Mansour strike throws Pak-US ties on the razor edge.’

It also cited the US aid restrictions over the F-16 fighter jets deal between the two countries.

The News reported that the strike, authorised by President Barack Obama, which included multiple drones, “showed the US was prepared to go after the Taliban leadership.”

Dawn in its report said the death of the Mansour shows that US stepped across the “red line” when it launched the first-ever drone strike in Pakistan’s Baluchistan area.

According to its report, there have been about 391 drone strikes by the US in Pakistani territory, primarily targeting Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders since 2004.

All but four of these strikes took place in the tribal agencies. The only previously reported strikes that took place in settled areas were in Hangu district (2013) and three in Bannu (2008), it reported citing the database maintained by Long War Journal.

Seventy-one per cent of the strikes took place in North Waziristan, while 23 per cent targeted areas in South Waziristan.

The report said that Sunday’s strikes prompted fears among the Pakistani leadership that the US could expand the theatre of drone warfare into the settled areas of Pakistan.