Tribesmen in North Waziristan have said that no drone attack was carried out in the tribal areas after incident of November 26 when NATO forces raided two Pakistani posts and killed 24 soldiers and injured 16 others. Several tribesmen said on phone from Miranshah that the US spy aircraft were now a rare appearance in the skies and if so they flew on a very high altitude. The last drone attack was carried out on November 17 which had killed six suspected militants in a strike near Razmak in North Waziristan. No attack has been launched over the past 25 days, which is likely to be the first time since 2004 that tribal areas witnessed a break in drone attacks of over three weeks.
Tribesmen maintained that drone attacks stopped as a result of Pakistan’s strong stance against the November’s attack in Mohmand Agency along Afghan border. “The US had intensified drone attacks in the area recently but after Pakistan’s reaction the series stopped all of a sudden,” they further said. A campaigner against the US drone strikes Karim Khan said the drone strikes had been stopped after Pakistan adopted a tough stand. According to reports, the Pakistani Army Chief issued instructions to shoot down drones. Before November 26, eight drones used to hover over the tribal areas simultaneously.
So far Pakistani tribal areas has witnessed 283 drone attacks killing over two-thousand people beside injuring thousands of others and causing damage to properties.
