Tribesmen in North Waziristan have said that no drone attack was carried out in the tribal areas since incident of November 26 when NATO forces raided two Pakistani posts and killed 24 soldiers and injured 16 others.
Several tribesmen from Miranshah said that the U.S. spy aircraft now rarely appear in the sky.
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, and this is for the first time since 2004 that the tribal areas witnessed break in drone attack for about three weeks.
The tribesmen maintained that the 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 attacks stopped all of a sudden,” they further said.
A campaigner against the US drone strikes, Karim Khan, told Online that operation of drone strikes has been crippled so far after Pakistan adopted a tough stand.
After the incident Pakistan not only blocked NATO supply but also ordered its military to take action for defending borders and retaliate if any attack against them is carried out.
US media reported that after blocking the supply Pakistan has also changed its military strategy implying that any aircraft or drone would be shot down if it violates Pakistan’s airspace.
According to the reports Pakistani Army Chief also issued instruction in this connection and shooting down drones is part of the order. Before November 26, eight drones used to hover over the tribal areas simultaneously.
The US government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles).
So far Pakistani tribal areas has witnessed 283 drone attacks killing over two-thousand people beside injuring thousands of others and causing damages to properties.
In 2010 the focus of the growing drone attacks against Pakistani tribal areas was shifted toward North Waziristan.
