The family of the driver killed in a USA drone strike targeting Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in Pakistan has lodged a criminal case against the United States government, according to police.
Advertisement
“Pakistan may protest against drone strikes, but can not strike back decisively”.
It was also Musharraf who used to wrongly claim in the mid-2000s that Pakistan Air Force, instead of the U.S., was carrying out the air strikes (drone strikes) against the militants.
His family members said Azam, father of four children, was the sole earner in his family.
“We want justice”, Azam’s uncle, Haji Khuda-i-Nazar, told Dawn News on Sunday. He was the lone breadwinner in the family.
Nazar highlighted that the family was seeking some financial compensation for this loss from American and Pakistani authorities to support Azam’s family and fund his four children’s basic education. He said the confirmation was made after a DNA test of Mullah Mansour’s body and matching it with the DNA of a close relative of him, who had come to claim the body. The death of Mullah Mansour will not significantly dent Pakistan’s continued desire (with the aid of the Taliban) to turn Afghanistan into a client state and thereby minimize Indian influence in that country.
In 2015, the Taliban had started to fight themselves from within after it was revealed that former leader, Mullah Omar, had been dead for two years and Mansour had been running the militant group in his name only.
Top cleric, Maulvi Haibatullah Akhundzada, was chosen as the new chief in a swift transition of power after officially confirming the death of Mansour.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, between 2,499 to 4,001 people have been killed in 373 drone strikes from 2004 to May 21, 2016, including 424 to 966 civilians.
But this was the first by the USA in Balochistan province and Pakistan – whose spy agency has long supported the Taliban – angrily denounced it as a violation of its sovereignty. The Afghan government, too, has been demanding action against the Pakistan-based Afghan Taliban leaders following their refusal to hold peace talks with it.
Advertisement
Drone attacks have proven extremely controversial with the Pakistani public and rights groups. In 2013, Amnesty International said the USA could be guilty of war crimes by carrying out extrajudicial killings. President Barack Obama acknowledged in April that innocent civilians have been killed in USA drone strikes, which are carried out throughout the world, despite intelligence on targets being “triple-checked.” .
