The US had halted the launch of drone strikes from an airbase in Pakistan three months ago after the Raymond Davis dispute and the strikes that were conducted after the dispute were operated from bases in Afghanistan, revealed a report in The Washington Post on Saturday.
The report said that although the drone strikes are being launched from Afghanistan, the US forces continue to occupy the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan.
Pakistan claimed that it stopped the US from using this base for drone strikes following the unilateral US commando raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in May, but the report quoted the US and Pakistani officials as saying that the launches were halted in April after a dispute over the CIA contractor who killed two Pakistani citizens in Lahore in January, weeks before the raid.
The report said that the decision to suspend the launches was part of a US effort to “pay attention to the sensitivities” of the Pakistanis.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told a group of journalists that Pakistan had asked Washington to leave Shamsi airbase. Reacting to Mukhtar’s statement, US officials in Washington said there was no plan to evacuate the base. “That base is neither vacated nor being vacated,” said a US official familiar with the matter, asking for anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.
On Saturday, however, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan dismissed Mukhtar’s statements saying, “It’s just a statement for the media. I am also a member of the defence committee and the matter was not discussed there.”
The report said that although the drone strikes are being launched from Afghanistan, the US forces continue to occupy the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan.
Pakistan claimed that it stopped the US from using this base for drone strikes following the unilateral US commando raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in May, but the report quoted the US and Pakistani officials as saying that the launches were halted in April after a dispute over the CIA contractor who killed two Pakistani citizens in Lahore in January, weeks before the raid.
The report said that the decision to suspend the launches was part of a US effort to “pay attention to the sensitivities” of the Pakistanis.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told a group of journalists that Pakistan had asked Washington to leave Shamsi airbase. Reacting to Mukhtar’s statement, US officials in Washington said there was no plan to evacuate the base. “That base is neither vacated nor being vacated,” said a US official familiar with the matter, asking for anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.
On Saturday, however, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan dismissed Mukhtar’s statements saying, “It’s just a statement for the media. I am also a member of the defence committee and the matter was not discussed there.”