At least 20 killed in US drone attack in Pakistan

At least 20 persons were killed and 20 others injured when a US drone fired a barrage of missiles on a seminary for girls and adjoining house at Danday Darpakhel village in Pakistan’s troubled North Waziristan Agency on Monday.

According to locals, seven missiles hit the house of a senior commander of Afghanistan’s Taliban, Jalaluddin Haqqani, and adjoining seminary around four kilometers from Miramshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan Agency. They said the missiles were fired from a US drone as some of the unmanned aerial vehicles were seen hovering over the area.

A spokesman of local Taliban said that 20 persons were killed in the attack while the death toll might further increase. He said that all the victims were locals, including women and children. He said they were removing the debris of the destroyed buildings. He accused the Pakistan government of involvement in the attack and vowed to revenge the attack.

Another resident of the village said that two girls and two female teachers were killed in the seminary while another nine girl students and two female teachers had been shifted to Civil Hospital at Miramshah. He too said that all the victims were locals and none of them was foreigner. He said that besides house of Haqqani and seminary, several adjoining houses were also destroyed in the attack.

Reports quoted an official of Pakistani military having confirmed the attack but refusing to offer comments. News agencies also quoted a son of Haqqani as saying that his father was safe and sound in Afghanistan at the time of the attack on his house in the Pakistani territory.

The US forces stationed in Afghanistan have stepped up their missile strikes on Pakistani territory in North and South Waziristan Agency in the recent weeks and over 50 persons have been killed in eight such attacks during two-and-a-half weeks.

Jalaluddin Haqqani is one of the Taliban leaders who are on top of the ‘most wanted’ list of the United States. He had migrated to Pakistan during the war against erstwhile Soviet Union. He has been running several seminaries in the North Waziristan Agency. When the US attacked Afghanistan following 9/11, Haqqani was chief of Taliban government’s southern military command.

Two vacated seminaries of Haqqani were bombed by Pakistani military in Miramshah. Being extremely aged, Haqqani is said to be inactive for the past few years and has been succeeded by his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani. The latest attack on his house and seminary by the US drones is being seen as a consequence of stepped up activities of Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

In an interview widely published in the Pakistani and international media in mid-October 2001, following the US air attacks on the Taliban-controlled areas, Haqqani had admitted that they were unable to respond to the air strikes. However, he had said that when the US ground troops entered Afghanistan, they would be offered stiff resistance. He had described the US troops as ‘chocolate soldiers’, declaring that Taliban had sufficient arms and ammunition to fight invading forces at least for a decade.