The roars celebrating the re-election of US President Barack Obama on television give Mohammad Rehman Khan a searing headache, as years of grief and anger come rushing back. The 28-year-old Khan accuses the president of robbing him of his father, three brothers and a nephew, all killed in a US drone aircraft attack a month after Obama first took office.
"The same person who attacked my home has gotten re-elected," he told Reuters in the capital, Islamabad, where he fled after the attack on his village in South Waziristan, one of several ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border.
"Since yesterday, the pressure on my brain has increased. I remember all of the pain again."
In his re-election campaign, Obama gave no indication he would halt or alter the drone programme, which he embraced in his first term to kill al Qaeda and "Whenever he has a chance, Obama will bite Muslims like a snake. Look at how many people he has killed with drone attacks," said Haji Abdul Jabar, whose 23-year-old son was killed in such a bombing.
"NO DIFFERENCE" Getting accurate data on casualties and the effects of drones is extremely difficult in the dangerous, remote and often inaccessible tribal areas. The Taliban often seal off the sites of strikes.
"We are amazed that Obama has been re-elected. But for us there is no difference between Obama and Romney; both are enemies. And we will keep up our jihad and fight alongside our Afghan brothers to get the Americans out of Afghanistan," said Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.
"Any American, whether Obama or Mitt Romney, is cruel," Warshameen Jaan Haji, whose neighbourhood was struck by a drone last week, told Reuters on the eve of the election. "I lost my wife in the drone attack and my children are injured. Whatever happens, it will be bad for Muslims."
Imran Khan, a vocal critic of US drone strikes, said he believed Obama stepped up the attacks in his first term so he wouldn't look weak on national security.
"I think Obama essentially has an anti-war instinct," he told Reuters. "Without the worry of being re-elected, he will de-escalate the war, including the use of drones. This is positive."
But for Mohammad Khan, who is not related to the former cricketer, the damage is already done.
The February 2009 drone attack that destroyed his home left him as the main provider for 13 family members, forcing him to move to Islamabad and work with a real estate company.
"When the Sandy hurricane came, I thought that Allah would wipe away America," he said. "America just wants to take over the world.
Comments
Comments are closed.