Pakistan to review US ties after ‘attack on peace,’ says Nisar

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Calling the drone strike that killed Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on Friday “an attack on regional peace by America,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Saturday said bilateral ties with the US will now be reviewed.
Speaking to a press conference at the interior ministry, Nisar vowed to raise the matter at international forums, including the United Nations.
Nisar said an urgent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS) has been called to review bilateral cooperation and ties with the US. The meeting is expected to take place in coming two to three days upon return of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from London, he added.
Mehsud, along with at least five other militants, was killed when a US drone targeted his car in the North Waziristan tribal district of Pakistan near the Afghan border.
The interior minister said a three-member committee, comprising Islamic clerics, was scheduled to leave for a meeting with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leadership on Saturday morning.
Nisar said the identity of those killed in the drone strike was irrelevant. The government of Pakistan does not see this drone attack as an attack on an individual but as an attack on the peace process, he said.
Claiming that TTP leadership including Hakimullah was aware of the meeting, he said he had written and had telephonic records of recent correspondence between the government and the militant outfit.
Earlier on Friday, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid had said the Taliban had had “no contact” with the government, a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said a process to initiate peace talks had already begun.
Chaudhry Nisar questioned timings of the Hakimullah’s killing asking why he was targeted just a day before the talks.
“Can this be called supporting peace initiative?” he asked.
The minister said that five permanent members of the UN Security Council will also be contacted on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani government summoned the US ambassador to protest over the Friday drone strike.
A statement from the Foreign Office said Friday’s strike was “counter-productive to Pakistan’s efforts to bring peace and stability to Pakistan and the region”.
Since its creation six years ago, the TTP has killed thousands of civilians, soldiers and police in its bloody insurgency against the Pakistani state. Pakistan routinely condemns drone strikes on its soil as a violation of sovereignty and terms them counterproductive to efforts to end militancy.

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