Pakistan Wednesday condemned the US drone attack in Kurram Agency, describing that such 'unilateral actions are detrimental to the spirit of cooperation between the two countries in the fight against terrorism.' "Pakistan condemns a drone strike in Kurram Agency carried out by the Resolute Support Mission (RSM) this [Wednesday] morning, which targeted an Afghan refugee camp," the Foreign Office said in a statement.
It asserted that Pakistan has continued to emphasize on the US the importance of sharing actionable intelligence so that appropriate action is taken against terrorists by its forces within its territory. Pakistan has also been stressing the need for early repatriation of Afghan refugees as their presence in Pakistan helps Afghan terrorists melt and morph among them, it added.
"Such unilateral actions, as that of today, are detrimental to the spirit of cooperation between the two countries in the fight against terrorism," the Foreign Office cautioned. Earlier in the day, conflicting reports were coming from Kurram Agency and Orakzai Agency, the tribal areas, about the US drone strikes to have targeted a house owned by Afghan refugees, while another report claimed that a compound was targeted belonging to Haqqani Network.
A police official Ameer Zaman in Thal town reportedly confirmed the death of a man named Nasir Mehmood alias Khawari who was later identified as an alleged affiliate of Haqqani Network. This is for the first time in 2018, the Foreign Office has formally admitted the US drone strike within Pakistan's territorial boundaries, as a few other drone strikes were also carried out along the Pakistan-Afghan border in Kurram Agency.
In 2017, during the first year of President US Donald Trump, a total of eight drone strikes were reported inside Pakistan's tribal areas. According to reports by independent think tanks such as South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a total of 301 drone strikes were conducted within the territorial boundaries of Pakistan during the entire tenure of President Barack Obama.
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