Having celebrated the Christmas, when the world was welcoming the New Year on January 1st, CIA operated drones hunted down 19 persons in South and North Waziristan.
All those blown up in such attacks were allegedly extremists and terrorists, as usual. When the Western world was eating, drinking and merrymaking, its drones were spilling the blood of the innocent thousands of miles away.
In Mirali, after the drones had left the victims drenched in blood, the rescuers were hesitant to provide help for the fear of another drone attack. After waiting for agonising minutes when the relatives thought the drones had returned to their bases (location of bases only God knows), they rushed to attend to the wounded. However, their misery was not yet over. The drones reappeared and killed those attending to the dead and the wounded.
Israel uses the same tactics against the Palestinians to cause maximum casualties. One has nothing to complain about since the killer drones belong to our ally that provides us $1.5 billion annually and, therefore, has the right to kill some of us. But the civilised ally could easily have spared the first day of the New Year. It could have sent its drones on, let’s say, 2 January. Some 24 hours couldn’t have made much difference.
MIRZA TUFTAN BAIG
Lahore
