ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousuf Raza Gilani criticised US drone strikes in tribal belt.
Gilani said his government had convinced other countries of the world through diplomatic channels that “these drone attacks are creating problems for Pakistan .”
Efforts to isolate militants from their tribal support base were being undermined by the strikes in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan, he said in a speech at the federal parliament Wednesday .
His remarks came just hours after a drone strike killed six fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network on the Afghan border,the first such strike in a month.
“Under a well-thought-out strategy we had separated the tribes from militants, but when drone attacks occur, militants and tribes unite again, which is difficult for us to sustain politically and it also create difficulties for the military operations,” Gilani said.
He has called for an end to drone strikes a number of times in the past and criticised the campaign as an infringement on Pakistani sovereignty.
Gilani on Wednesday emphasised Pakistan’s importance in the war in terror and fight against Taliban militants.
“Nobody can win Afghanistan war without Pakistan. Drone attacks are not in favour of both countries,” he said.
In Wednesday’s attack,drone aircraft fired four missiles into a vehicle travelling through the South Waziristan district.
The strike came just one day after a Washington meeting between the chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, which runs the drone war.
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