A group of American anti-war activists are in Pakistan to join a march into the country’s tribal belt to protest US drone strikes in the rugged Northwest Territory.
Their presence has energised organizers behind the protest but also added to concerns that Islamist militants will target the weekend event.
The two-day march, in reality a long convoy , is to be led by Imran Khan, the former cricket star-turned-politician who has become a top critic of the American drone strikes in Pakistan.
It is to start tomorrow in Islamabad and end in a town in South Waziristan, a tribal region that has been a major focus of drone strikes as well as the scene of a Pakistani army offensive against militants.
Khan, like many Pakistanis, alleges that the drone strikes have killed large numbers of innocent civilians and terrorised the tribes living along the Afghan border.
Islamabad: A group of American anti-war activists are in Pakistan to join a march into the country’s tribal belt to protest US drone strikes in the rugged Northwest Territory.
Their presence has energised organizers behind the protest but also added to concerns that Islamist militants will target the weekend event.
The two-day march, in reality a long convoy , is to be led by Imran Khan, the former cricket star-turned-politician who has become a top critic of the American drone strikes in Pakistan.
It is to start tomorrow in Islamabad and end in a town in South Waziristan, a tribal region that has been a major focus of drone strikes as well as the scene of a Pakistani army offensive against militants.
Khan, like many Pakistanis, alleges that the drone strikes have killed large numbers of innocent civilians and terrorised the tribes living along the Afghan border.
US drone strikes : 1 in 50 Killed are Militants,49 Innocents
Just one in 50 victims of “surgical” US drone strikes in Pakistan are known militants, a report claimed Tuesday.
The use of drones in the covert war run by the US against violent Islamists has been documented in a new report by legal experts at Stanford and New York universities, The Independent reported Tuesday.
The product of nine months’ research and more than 130 interviews, it is one of the most exhaustive attempts by academics to understand – and evaluate – Washington’s drone wars.
And their verdict is damning.
Throughout the 146-page report, the authors condemn drone strikes for their ineffectiveness, according to the newspaper.
Despite assurances the attacks are “surgical”, researchers found barely two percent of their victims are known militants and that the idea that the strikes make the world a safer place for the US is “ambiguous at best”.
–PTI & agencies