US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter was summoned at the Foreign Office and told that under the current circumstances, Pakistan would not be able to participate in the trilateral Afghanistan-Pakistan-US meeting.
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir lodged a strong protest with Munter over the drone attack in the Datta Khel region of North Waziristan, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said. “It was evident that the fundamentals of our relations need to be revisited. Pakistan should not be taken for granted nor treated as a client state,” the spokeswoman said.
According to Reuters, the United States had proposed the trilateral meeting in Brussels on March 26 to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
Ambassador Munter said that he understood clearly that this was not a “pro forma demarche” (a formality) and that he would rush to Washington to convey Pakistan’s message to the highest levels of the US administration.
Earlier, Pakistan Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani in a rare public display of displeasure with the United States condemned the drone strike as “unjustifiable and intolerable.”
“It is highly regrettable that a jirga of peaceful citizens including elders of the area was carelessly and callously targeted with complete disregard to human life,” he said in a statement issued late on Thursday.
The death toll in Thursday’s attack was one of the highest in a drone missile strike and came just one day after the release of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, who was acquitted of two counts of murder in the eastern city of Lahore. He was released after the families of the victims accepted 100 million rupees each in compensation or “blood money.”
Davis shot dead two Pakistanis in Lahore on Jan. 27 after what he described as an attempted armed robbery. The United States had repeatedly called for his release, saying he had diplomatic immunity.
Kayani’s statement on the strike likely will be interpreted by religious groups as a signal of the army’s displeasure over the Davis deal, analysts said. “His negative comments have also encouraged a lot of people from the political right to be more active in protests,” said Hassan Askari Rizvi, an independent political analyst.
“Perhaps the military wanted to distance itself from what has been done. It is politically motivated statement.”
Datta Khel is a stronghold of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a Taleban commander who harbors and sends militants across the border to fight Western forces in Afghanistan.
There were conflicting accounts about the attack.
One official said the missiles targeted a house of elders loyal to Bahadur trying to mediate between two warring militant groups inside. One of Bahadur’s commanders, a local elder, was believed killed in the attack.
Another official said the drone attacked a vehicle in the area that was passing by a house where local tribesmen were holding a business meeting, killing them.
The United States has been attacking Al-Qaeda-linked militants for the past few years in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas using drones, which are a source of worry for the government because civilians casualties inflame public anger and bolster support for the militants.
Washington has in recent months mounted pressure on Pakistan, its nuclear-armed ally, to go after militants in North Waziristan, using Pakistani sanctuaries to plot attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has said it will do so but on its own schedule and when adequate resources are available.
There had been speculation that Davis’ release had marked a rapprochement between the Pakistani and American spy agencies, making a North Waziristan operation more likely. But Rizvi said Kayani’s statement, which will fuel anger at the United States among Pakistanis, makes such an operation politically impossible for the foreseeable future.
“This puts an end to any talk of an imminent North Waziristan operation,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony in Islamabad and Haji Mujtaba in Miranshah;Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
(For more Reuters coverage of Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/places/pakistan)
(If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to [email protected]) (Created by Augustine Anthony)
