Pakistan has asked the United States to carry out drone strikes to kill Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah in the lawless tribal belt, a media report said.
Pakistan has asked the United States to carry out drone strikes to kill Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah in the lawless tribal belt, a media report said.
“Pakistan has asked Washington to drone Mullah Fazlullah and others involved in terrorist activities, including the most recent Bacha Khan University attack,” said a report published in the News daily.
“Washington has been told, through its embassy in Islamabad, that it must play its role in targeting the Taliban terrorists, who are using the Afghan soil for their nefarious designs against Pakistan,” it added.
The report claimed terrorists were operating from the bordering area of Afghanistan where they have the support of Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies.
The Pakistani Taliban says Mullah Fazlullah has nothing to do with the Charsadda University attack, but the government seems to believe that he does.
Pakistan officially condemns US drone strikes inside its territories but there have been claims the two countries reached an agreement during Pervez Musharraf’s military rule which allowed the US to strike inside Pakistan. Since 2004, the United States government has attacked hundreds of targets in Northwest Pakistan using drones controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities Division. Most of these attacks are on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Northwest Pakistan. These strikes began during the administration of United States President George W. Bush, and increased substantially under his successor Barack Obama. Surveys have shown that the strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, where they have contributed to a negative perception of the United States. Amnesty International found that a number of victims were unarmed and that some strikes could amount to war crimes.
