Pakistan: US drone strikes intolerable

Pakistani Foreign Office spokeswoman, Tehmina Janjua (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/203721.html

Pakistan has denounced the US drone attacks on its territory as unacceptable, reiterating that the strikes were being carried out in violation of the country's sovereignty.

“There is no change in Pakistan's stance on drone attacks. It is very clear that drone attacks are against the sovereignty of Pakistan,” Pakistani Foreign Office spokeswoman, Tehmina Janjua, was quoted by Pakistani daily, The Nation, as saying in the capital, Islamabad, on Sunday.

The US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, recently alleged that Islamabad had stopped demanding an end to the aerial assaults, which are carried out by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on northwestern Pakistan.

Janjua rejected Clapper's remarks, saying that the country would never retreat from its principally-adopted position on the drone attacks.

Major General Athar Abbas, spokesperson for the Pakistan Defence Forces, has also described the US official's comments as 'incorrect' and stressed that the strikes were counterproductive.

Last year alone, over 1,200 people were killed and hundreds others injured in the non-UN-sanctioned US drone strikes, which are being conducted amid growing popular outrage.

Pakistan's Ministry of Human Rights has reportedly asked the government to complain about the 'extra-judicial killings' to the United Nations and other international bodies.

The world body says the US-waged attacks posed a growing challenge to the international rule of law.