Pakistan says no to US drone strikes in Balochistan

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Saturday said it will not allow the US to carry out drone strikes against militants in the country’s Balochistan region bordering Afghanistan.

Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said, “No request from the US had been received for drone attacks in southwestern Balochistan province”.

“Even if such a request comes forth, we’ll never allow them to attack our territory like this,” he said.

A report carried by the Washington Post Friday said the US was seeking to expand drone operations in Pakistan and a request had been made for allowing drone strikes in Balochistan.

US policy makers have repeatedly said militants of Al Qaeda and the Haqqani network were using the rugged mountains of Balochistan as their hideouts because of its close proximity with Afghanistan and Iran.

“We already have reservations on the drone attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan,” Basit told Dunya TV.

A number of high-profile suspected terrorists have been killed in around 200 drone attacks since 2004.

(Awais Saleem can be contacted at ians.pakistan@gmail.com)