The brother of a man killed alongside Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a USA drone strike in southwest Pakistan has filed a report with police asking for his brother’s killing to be investigated, officials said on Sunday.
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The air strike on Saturday, May 21, that allegedly killed Mansour was perhaps the most high-profile USA incursion into Pakistan since the 2011 raid to kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and sparked a protest by Islamabad that its sovereignty had been violated.
Azam was killed in the USA drone strike that also killed Mansoor.
According to interior ministry’s spokesperson, the other person killed in the attack has already been identified.
The FIR was lodged by Azam’s brother, Muhammad Qasim, at the Mal Levies station with the Mal Tehsildar in the Noshki district. “The US conducted a precision air strike that targeted Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border”.
The car’s driver Mohammad Azam was also killed in the attack and USA officials described him as a “second male combatant”.
Azam’s family has claimed he was innocent and a father of four who was the family’s sole breadwinner.
China had mentioned in its April report on the US’ human rights record that drone attacks in Pakistan were a violation of basic norms. “Drone strikes have added to the complexity of the Afghan conflict”, said.
Afghan opposition Northern Alliance troops wait for their President Burhanuddin Rabbani at a training camp in the outskirts of Jabal us Seraj, some 60kms north of the Afghan capital Kabul, November 5, 2001.
FILE – Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, leader of the Afghan Taliban, is seen in this undated handout photo from the Taliban.
Few months back, in his last state of union address, Obama warned that Pakistan and Afghanistan would continue to face turmoil for decades.
Mansour, it’s argued, was among those Taliban leaders who are reconcilable and actually wanted a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan.
Pakistan yesterday asked Afghanistan to support efforts for peace talks with the Taliban and other factions to ensure a peaceful future for the coming generations.
Cleveland said last week that the strike on Mansour may not bring the top-level Taliban leadership to the negotiating table in the near term, but it may sway lower-level leaders to choose “the path of peace”.
But Islamabad had refused to confirm Mansur’s death before receiving the results of DNA tests on May 29.
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He said Pakistan helped the U.S. in Afghanistan and gave it a safe passage for exit.
