Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan on Wednesday warned Britain to help stop the US “Drone Wars” that were slaughtering hundreds of Pakistan’s innocent civilians. In an interview to The Sun, Hasan said Pakistan “has the means” to retaliate unless the carnage ceases. But he urged British Prime Minister David Cameron to condemn US drone attacks on al Qaeda and Taliban training camps in the north west– dubbing them as “war crimes” and “little more than state executions”.
Hasan, who the British paper called tough-talking, also declared Pakistan would have no choice but to support Iran if “aggressive” Israel attacks it. But his immediate concern was the drones known to have killed 535 civilians, including 60 children, in three years. The high commissioner said, “I think time is running out until the Pakistan government can take a stand. They will have to at some stage take punitive actions to stop them. They have got means to take such actions to defend their own frontier and territories. “ He said, “But that will inflame the situation and stop the war on terror and that is not what we want.”
The US military claim drones have “decimated” the al Qaeda leadership since 2008 with no reported civilian casualties.
But Hasan said, “We know the damage — destroyed schools, communities, hospitals. They are civilians — children, women, families. Our losses are enormous. “Generally people think that deaths caused by drone attacks should be treated as war crimes.” “There is so much animosity that perhaps the Americans are the most hated people in the minds of the people in Pakistan.”
On Iran, Hasan was quoted as saying, “We would not like Israel to attack any country, irrespective of whether it’s Iran or any nuclear country. We wouldn’t like to be seen as part of Israel’s campaign against any country. If Israel attacks Iran, it will have an impact on Pakistan as well.” “We will have to safeguard our own interests. We also have a Shia population in Pakistan who will not take it lying down.” He warned that India and Gulf countries could also get involved in any conflict, the report said.
