Miramshah, June 25: Wrapped in white bandages and lying on a bed in the dust-bowed district hospital in Miramshah, the capital of North Waziristan, Fazl-e-Rabbi is one of who lucky enough to survive a US deadly missile strike at a funeral ceremony in neighboring South Waziristan a day earlier.
“We had just finished the funeral prayers and I was wearing my shoes when I felt that the sun had exploded on my head,” Fazl-e-Rabbi, who received injuries in his arms, legs and lower abdomen, told.
“What I remember is that I was hit by something in my lower abdomen and then in no time I fell on the ground. I tried to control my senses but I could not.”
Some 83 people, mostly civilians were reportedly killed and over 50 injured in three consecutive drone attacks in Lataka, an area located 50 kilometers north of Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, within 12 hours.
The first strike killed several suspected Taliban militants in Shubi Khel, about 65 kilometers north of Wana.
Intelligence officials say senior Afghan Taliban commander Khoj Wali, who was heading a meeting of local Taliban, was killed in the attack along with five others.
As mourners gathered for their funeral prayers later in the day in a nearby area, another drone fired three missiles into the crowd.
“The last feeling I had at that time was that I am going to die as people soaked in their own blood were running from here to there to take shelter,” recalled Fazl-e-Rabbi, a father of three, fighting back his tears.
Since August 2008, about 43 US drone strikes have killed at least 410 people.
The US does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its troops in neighboring Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.
Publicly, the Pakistani government opposes attacks by pilotless US aircraft as a violation of its territorial sovereignty.
Innocents
Fazl-e-Rabbi, a farmer by profession, insisted that most of the victims were innocent civilians.
“Most of the deceased were civilians. I know almost all of them. They were from my area,” he insisted.
The victims included two of his cousins.
“One of my cousins was standing next to me during the funeral prayers. I heard his deafening scream before falling on the ground,” he remembered.
“I don’t remember what happened after that but his last scream has settled down in my mind.”
Fazl-e-Rabbi was later informed that both his cousins breathed their last.
According to local sources, the deceased were buried in a mass grave.
“We have nothing to do with Taliban or Al-Qaeda,” he fumed.
“It is a local tradition that whoever dies in your neighborhood, then it is a must for us to attend his funeral and burry him. We did the same.”
His contention is backed by local journalists and a parliamentarian elected from the area.
“Around 50 civilians who had nothing to do with Taliban have been killed in the strikes,” Irfan Khan, a local journalist, told.
He refuted reports that Afghan or foreign Taliban were killed in the drone attacks.
“Most of them victims were civilians, while some local Taliban have also been killed.”
Senator Saleh Shah, who belongs to South Waziristan, agrees.
“As far as my information is concerned, most of the deceased were ordinary tribesmen who gathered to offer funeral prayers of some suspected local Taliban,” he told.
“Taliban are not as doofus as gathering under open sky and become an easy target for US drones.”
Radicalizing
Fazl-e-Rabbi, the wounded civilian, is furious at the treatment melted out to him and his fellow residents by the government and the media.
“We are stuck between Taliban and US attacks and when we are killed, not only no one cries for us, but also we are dubbed as militants,” he fumed.
He laments that no official has visited them to check on their condition, or even verify whether they are Taliban or not.
“They won’t come because they know we are innocent. It seems as if we are aliens in our own country.”
Fazl-e-Rabbi is equally critical of both Taliban and the Americans.
“If Taliban are bombing the mosques, then America is bombing the funerals. What is difference between them?”
Senator Shah warns that such attacks would further fan anti-government, anti-American sentiments in the already restive tribal area.
“If this kind of practice continues, then mark my words, this so-called war on terror can never be won.
“Taliban don’t need anything to coax the people. US drone attacks are enough to do that.”
Fazl-e-Rabbi agrees.
“We don’t demand anything. We just want to be treated equally. Don’t force us to become Taliban, which we don’t want to.”
-Agencies