Bajaur killings

The killing of 82 people in an early morning strike on a Madrassah in the restive Bajaur Agency, to say the least, is hugely shocking. At least 12 of the victims were reportedly boys in their early teens.
According to most local accounts, American drones fired three missiles at the Madrassah compound, of which one missed the target and the other two completely flattened the building.
Pakistan's military helicopters, say the local residents, arrived on the scene about 15 minutes later to fire a few rockets that hit the nearby hills. Military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, however, told the media that the attack was launched by Pakistan's own helicopter gunships, not the foreign drones. He also said that there was no 'high value target' present at the place.
The government, he said, had received information that 70-80 militants were getting training in the Madrassah, and that it decided to launch the attack after several days of surveillance and confirmation of the information that it served as a training camp for militants. Even if the government version is true that it alone was responsible, not the Americans, for the killing of so many Pakistanis, that does not diminish in any way the anguish that the incident has caused countrywide. The official version, though, is a lot less than convincing and raises more questions than it answers.
The incident happened at a time the local militants had already signed a North Waziristan-style peace deal with the government, and the agreement was about to be implemented. If the government had authentic information about militant training, it could have asked those who brokered the agreement to stop the objectionable activity. Otherwise, there was no point in making a deal that the military spokesman said the government is still interested in. As for the question whether so many citizens of this country were killed by the foreign or local forces, the truth may not take long to come out.
Pakistani journalists were stopped from going to the scene of the tragedy to ascertain the facts, but the US media is under no such constraints. It is expected to find out soon what happened and report it in discussions and analyses, and the same information is going to travel back to Pakistan. Nonetheless, for now one has to deal with what the government is saying, that it alone is responsible for the incident.
In that case, it should have tried other options rather than firing missiles at its own people, especially when there was no 'high value target' present at the scene, who could have lent urgency to a military strike. Nearly 70,000 troops are stationed in the troubled areas. They could have been called upon to encircle the Madrassah and apprehend the alleged culprits in order to bring them to justice in accordance with the law of the land. In such an event, some loss of life would have been likely and explainable too, but there can be no justification for the mass killing.
Incidents such as this in aid of the war in Afghanistan may result in dangerous repercussions for this society. In fact, Pakistan has already been paying a heavy price for having participated in the US led proxy war in Afghanistan, which it left in a big mess after accomplishing its mission whose objective was to hurt and humiliate the Communist giant of the era, the erstwhile Soviet Union.
As it is, the US and its allies appear to have little interest now in the outcome of the current war in Afghanistan as well. It seems they are looking for ways to make an exit. Due to reasons of geographical proximity Pakistan will have to face the aftermath. It would not be easy for it to deal, once again, with the effects of the current war in Afghanistan and the militancy it has generated in our tribal belt as well as settled areas in parts of NWFP and Balochistan.