Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s Shireen Mazari Thursday criticised Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Qamar Bajwa’s response to a United States (US) drone strike in Hangu on Monday night.
According to security sources, the strike killed a Haqqani network commander Abubakar and his partner in the Speen Tal area of Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“We don’t expect [the] COAS to simply term [the] US Drone strike on Hangu as ‘counter-productive’,” Mazari said in a tweet on Wednesday.
She also slammed what she called the army chief’s “three days of silence” after the drone strike. However, the army chief’s statement came Wednesday night—two days after the strike.
“We expect our military to defend our territory against all attacks and intrusions including by US drones on our territory,” the PTI leader asserted. “Action, not words, needed,” she added.
“[The] COAS [is] expected to act, not just condemn three days after attack,” she tweeted.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement quoted COAS Bajwa as saying, “Unilateral actions, like drone strike, etc., are counterproductive and against [the] spirit of… ongoing cooperation and intelligence sharing being diligently undertaken by Pakistan.”
US drone strikes in Pakistan have been severely criticised by the government in the past.
Following a US drone strike in Balochistan’s Dalbandin area which killed Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour last year, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif described the action as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Why do our Media stay mum? Don’t want to miss a trip to the land of terrorists!
Comments are closed.