- While government claims there has been no civilian casualties in July 16 military airstrikes in NWA’s Shawal Valley, local residents allege PAF jets killed 37 villagers, including 20 women and 10 children
- AFP quotes senior security official as saying that residents were given ample time to evacuate area, claims terrorists were using locals as human shields
- Chief tribal elder of NWA wants end to operation, Shawal elder demands probe into airstrikes
The government is adamant that Pakistan Army is “only killing terrorists” in its airstrikes in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) while according to multiple accounts by NWA locals reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, 37 civilians were killed, including 20 women and 10 children, in airstrikes in NWA’s Shawal Valley on July 16.
According to the AFP report, when Pakistan Air Force jets rained down missiles on a village in the country’s violence-wracked northwest last week, the military’s information wing chose to describe the July 16 incident as “Today early morning 35 fleeing terrorists were killed through aerial strikes in Shawal Valley”.
While the official toll has been impossible to verify, raising questions among rights activists over the offensive’s true human cost, a new account has emerged of the killing of dozens of women and children in the air strikes, sparking anger over rising civilian casualties and fears that a new generation of radicals is being created.
As villagers grieve the deaths of their near and dear ones, the incident has become a focus of rising anger among tribesmen who have managed to flee to border towns inside Pakistan, and who on Monday threatened to march on Islamabad if the operation does not end soon.
The bombardment in the Shawal Valley began just before 1am, lighting up the sky as residents of Zoi Saidgai village sat down to eat their pre-dawn Ramazan meal (Sehri).
“It continued for hours, targeting 11 houses,” Malik Mirzal Khan, an elder who lost his daughter and brother in the strikes, told AFP from a payphone in his village.
“A single bomb dropped from the plane blew up two mud houses and the explosions could be heard 30 kilometres away,” Khan, part of a high-level peace council that attempted to avert the government offensive before it began, told the foreign news agency, adding that residents had made a list of the dead and “none” of them were militants.
“My 13-year-old daughter, brother, his wife and two of his kids were killed,” he said.
The rest, Khan added, were not local or foreign militants, but innocent civilians who were killed. “Those seven men who died were never involved in militancy.”
Noor Wali Khan, a 27-year-old truck driver, said he lost his mother and two sisters-in-law when his house was bombed, while his brother and father were seriously wounded.
Both men’s accounts were backed up by three other witnesses and relatives AFP spoke to, but the military has so far refused to comment on the matter on the record.
HUMAN SHIELDS?
A senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has said those who were killed had “plenty of warning to evacuate”.
“If a terrorist is living with his family and does not abandon them even during the time of operation and we have solid ground intelligence about the terrorist and we target his hideout, what would you call it, collateral damage or what?” the source asked.
“If a terrorist is using his family as human shields what do you expect the military to do?”
Khan, the elder, said his village was never informed it would be a target.
“In the meetings with military and civil officials, we had been assured to stay home as our areas were declared safe and free from militant control,” he said, adding that he had conveyed the same message to the local population and had forbidden them from leaving their houses. He also said that he was “furious with the government”.
‘TRUTH WILL COME OUT’
Anti-government sentiment is running high in the village, fuelling fears among observers that the military action could “backfire by creating new recruits for the militants”.
According to the news agency, residents said that no rescue officials were able to reach the remote area and locals dug out corpses using tools and tractors.
Wali Muhammad, a 28-year-old shopkeeper, said that the nature of Wednesday’s strikes meant the facts would eventually be known, despite the army’s claims.
“You cannot cover up the sun with a finger,” he said, using a Pashto expression that roughly translates to: “The truth will come out”.
Some 500 villagers turned out for funeral prayers to mourn the dead. “There were tears in the eyes of every person who participated,” Muhammad said.
“We want the military operation to be completed as soon as possible because civilians are suffering the most,” Malik Nasrullah, the chief elder of the North Waziristan tribes, told the news agency.
Malik Mirzal Khan, the elder from Shawal, demanded an investigation into the air strike. “We want to make sure such action is not repeated for other people who are still living in Waziristan,” he said.
GOVT DENIES:
Federal Minister for State and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch denied that civilians were killed in last week’s air strikes conducted in Shawal.
“There is a very small civil population in Shawal Valley which is yet to be evacuated, but I assure you there were no reports of civilian casualties,” Baloch told a news conference in Islamabad.
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