Peshawar:
Members of the provincial legislature in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) sentenced an alleged drone strike on Friday in the Mardan Katlang region in the last week of March and demanded a judicial investigation into the incident.
The legislators of the cash and opposition benches also called to convene the Inspector General of the KP Police (IGP) and the secretary at home, wondering why and how the strike was made.
A session of the provincial assembly took place on Friday under the chairmanship of President Babar Saleem Swati. After offering Fateh prayers for the victims of Katlang, the legislators discussed the tragedy that resulted in the death of 9 civilians, including two women and two children.
Zarshad Khan, a PTI MPA of Mardan, said that the drone strike had occurred in his constituency just two days before Eidul Fitr, targeting innocent civilians. Due to sorrow and fear, the inhabitants of Babuzai did not celebrate Eid, he said.
According to Zarshad, some shepherds, who belonged to the community of the Gujjar of Swat, have migrated to the region during winters for 60 to 70 years. They had rented the mountains for six months at the cost of 500,000 rupees.
“They had to come back after Eid but just two days before Eid, a drone shot killed nine people, including two children and two women. Their bodies were placed on the highway to protest.
“These people were not terrorists but innocent civilians. If the security agencies made a mistake, it should be admitted and would accept excuses,” he said.
He also sentenced the declaration made by KP chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, concerning the Katlang incident and called for both a judicial inquiry and the adoption of a resolution in the Assembly.
Iftikhar Ali Mashwani, who is also from Mardan, questioned who had carried out the operation and why. He said that the IG and the interior secretary should be summoned and asked why these innocent civilians had been killed.
Malik Adeel Iqbal of the PTI said that the incident, based on erroneous intelligence, was deeply tragic.
Shafiullah Jan said that from 2014 to 2018, the United States made 430 drone strikes on Pakistani soil, causing 1,800 deaths. He said that drone strikes are never precise and affect many others. He said that the situation of the law and the order in the southern districts was already precarious.
“Our chief [Imran Khan] had protested against drone strikes years ago. If everything that should be done now are table conferences, why was the problem not raised earlier? Killing ordinary people in the name of counter-terrorism only pushes the province in terrorism, “he said.
He also accused the authorities of being more focused on breaking the PTI than solving real problems. He condemned the declaration of the Federal Minister of Information Atta Tarar, who would have said that no civilian was among the dead in Katlang.
“Women and children were also martyred in the drone strike. However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the terrorists had been sent to hell in the incident.
“Those who witnessed the incident are broken. A judicial investigation should be carried out,” he added. The PTI legislator, Humayun Khan, also said that shepherds had rented the land in the Katalang regions, adding that all relevant documents were available in this regard.
On March 29, the government of KP published a statement, expressing regrets of civilian victims during a terrorism fight against the outlaws of Mardan, extending its “biggest condolences to affected families” with which, he said, he was held at the time of sorrow.
By telling the details of the operation, the government said that the security forces had carried out an operation in the early hours of March 29 in the distant area from the Katlang hill in Mardan.
He said the operation was based on credible information concerning the presence of armed activists who used the location as a hiding place and transit.
“The operation has succeeded in neutralizing several high-value objectives linked to the ongoing militant activities in the region. Unfortunately, subsequent reports have confirmed the presence of non-combatants, including women and children, on the outskirts of the target zone, causing tragic civilian victims,” he said.
