Date:21/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/21/stories/2007062150831400.htm

International

Row over American “strike” in Pakistan

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties walked out of the National Assembly on Thursday in protest against an alleged strike by the U.S military inside Pakistan that killed 32 persons.

National Assembly members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and the lone member of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party staged a token walk-out against Wednesday’s incident that was reported by the Pakistani press as a U.S. missile attack on a target in the North Waziristan tribal area.

The incident is reported to have taken place in the Data Khel area of North Waziristan, 3 km from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Pakistani media quoted local people as saying missiles were fired from across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and that a madrassa was destroyed in the attack.

Houses hit

Other reports said the missiles hit a cluster of houses and tents that served as a training camp for militants, and that the attack was carried out by an aircraft.

The Pakistan military denied an operation in the area, either by its forces or U.S. forces based in Afghanistan.

Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Major-General Arshad Waheed said the deaths were caused by explosions inside a militant training facility, where militants were assembling bombs.

He said the dead were all militants.

A statement from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Secretariat also denied a madrassa was destroyed in the incident.

It attributed the deaths to an explosion in the living quarters of a militant training camp, and emphasised that no resident of North Waziristan was killed.

Most of the dead are believed to be Uzbeks.