Authorities found the bullet-riddled bodies of three Pakistanis and one Afghan in North Waziristan area with notes outlining their alleged role in the March 17 drone strike, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The Pakistanis were found in the Datta Khel area where the attack occurred, while the Afghan was discovered near Mir Ali, one of the main towns in North Waziristan, said the officials. The notes found with the bodies warned that anyone who helps the US will face a similar fate.
Militants often kill alleged spies after drone attacks. Pakistani intelligence officials initially said the roughly three dozen people killed in last Thursday’s drone attack were militants meeting in a compound to discuss sending additional insurgents to Afghanistan to fight foreign forces.
But they changed their story the next day, saying the meeting consisted of two tribes who had asked the Taleban to help mediate a dispute over a nearby chromite mine. The attack killed 12 Taleban and 24 innocent tribesmen, they said.
The allegations sparked a rare condemnation by Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who has close ties with US military figures. Other senior Pakistani officials also criticized the attack, and the government said it would not participate in a trilateral meeting with the US and Afghanistan that Washington had proposed at the end of March in Brussels.
The US does not publicly acknowledge covert CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. But unnamed officials in Washington abruptly dismissed Pakistan’s claims, saying innocent civilians were not targeted in the strike.
The US response could have been partly fueled by what many see as Pakistan’s two-faced policy on drone strikes.
Pakistani officials often criticize them as violations of the country’s sovereignty, but the military is believed to provide intelligence for some of the strikes, and some of the drones are believed to take off from bases in Pakistan.
