Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Pakistan rejects US report on Salala attacks

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has rejected the joint US-Nato report on the attack on a Pakistani check post on Nov 26, military sources told DawnNews on Wednesday.

According to the sources, the US-led report was ‘not based on facts’, and that it can not be unbiased as long as the probe was headed by Brigadier General Stephen Clark.
US officials said Tuesday that the American military has briefed Pakistan’s army chief on its investigation into US air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border last month.
Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby told reporters that a report by military investigators was delivered to General Ashfaq Kayani on Sunday by a US officer based in Islamabad, who explained the findings to the general.
The full report from the joint US-Nato investigative team was not released publicly until Monday to allow time for the Pakistani leadership to read the findings first, Kirby said.
“We wanted General Kayani to be able to see the entire thing,” he said, calling the approach “an appropriate professional courtesy” to Kayani.
But a Pakistani security official told AFP “no such briefing took place and the report was not handed over in person to the army chief”.
“The report was delivered to the concerned department (of army headquarters) but not to the chief,” the official said.
Pakistan has yet to give a detailed public response to the report, but officials have expressed irritation that elements were initially leaked to American newspapers last week.