Is the Drone warfare going to
stop over Pakistan?
Last year while travelling from Karachi to Islamabad through Shaheen Air, a
Pakistan air force’s an aeronautical engineer was sitting beside me with his
wife.
There were mounting causalities by drones in those days. After every drone
attack, there was a hue and cry by the government, the politicians and of course
the public of Pakistan. “It’s an attack on the sovereignty of Pakistan. We just
cannot tolerate this.” I asked him, “what about the air force, you don’t have
the capability to stop or destroy these drones. He smiled sheepishly,” Why not
but we are not allowed to do so.”
The USA government repeatedly said that this all was done with Government of
Pakistan’s permission and agreement. There was a lot of outrage for civilian
casualties. Those were counted in thousands. The news today is that those are
just 67 casualties, 3% of the total militants’ casualties. How we can ascertain
that those 2700 or 3000 killed were all militants. Do we consider all the males
killed in drone attacks are militants? In fact these numbers are just not
reliable and have no regular facts and figures.
Code pink a women against war and oppression organization raised their voice and
efforts for the drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen .The figures that they have
collected about civilian casualties are more than one thousand.I am a silent
member of their group.
They joined Imran Khan the chief of Pakistan Tehrik Inssaf, who went to protest
against Drone attacks in Waziristan. These ladies of course invited me to join
but I could not due to my lethargy. Medea Benjamin wrote a detailed book on
Drone killings. These ladies travelled all the way to Pakistan to join the
protest with Imran Khan and faced a lot of sufferings. They protested with other
groups here in USA, during Obama’s oath taking ceremony and on various
occasions.
President Obama on the other hand always claimed that the civilian damage or
collateral toll damage is quite low and this method is quite efficient in
eliminating militants.
Now the Code Pink and Amnesty International have joined together, in raising
their voices against drone war fare. They have brought a family of drone attack
victims to Washington DC with the help of a congressman. There is a 9 years old
girl Nabila, her 13 years old brother Zubair Rahman and theirFather Rafiq ur
Rahman. They met with Congressmen and are making news and giving interviews to
press and media. They are not targeted by Taliban or Militants. Their case and
allegations are against US government, targeted by them in drone warfare. Their
67 years old grandmother Mamana bibi waspicking vegetables from the garden, it
was the 2nd day of Eidul Adha, when the drone struck its missiles the
grandmother got killed and rest of them badly burnt and injured. It happened
last year on October 24th 2012. Just one case,one strike catches the lime lite
of the whole enormous tragedy. They are here to seek Justice and to stop these
drone attacks. Rafiqur Rahman says, this way more and more hatred is developed
for USA.
The young kids are terrified with the buzzing sounds of airplanes or drones
hovering over their heads. They say when the weather is cloudy the drone does
not come but in clear skies, the drone strikes. Their lives are in a constant
terrified situation. A drone can encircled the area for at least 14 hours,
defining its targets and who ever could be the next target.
Let us see if President Obama, john Stewart, Angelina Julie, Madonna and others
would like to see, meet and listen to these kids, like they did to Malala. They
are in no way inferior to Malala , they are the victims of a brutal attack . A
hell let loose on them from the sky and they are in the land, which claims that
Justice prevails and never denied.
As I was to conclude this write up two drone strike are done consecutively on
both days. The news is that the commander of Tehrik Taliban PakistanHakimullah
Mahsood is killed along with a group through this strike.
Nawaz Sharif claimed that he had started negotiating with Taliban. Is this going
to be a severe blow for Pakistan, all the efforts done in this regard? Were they
sincere efforts from both sides? Nawaz Sharif came all the way to meet US
President, read him a letter and was confident that he has pleaded President
Obama to stop drone attacks. Is this again stabbing Pakistan in the back or this
is done with mutual understanding?