Drones breed militancy, says Hina Khar

Pakistan

Drones breed militancy, says Hina Khar

Close

US drones hitting targets on Pakistani territory are illegal, said Foreign Minister Hina Khar.

09 February,2012 05:22 pm

Attacks by US drones on Pakistani territory are illegal and cannot be tolerated, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told a Russian media outlet.She also said the alleged involvement of Pakistani spy agencies with the Taliban is not even worthy of comment.In a recent development, a US drone strike killed three suspected militants in the Pakistani northwest tribal region, AP news agency reported on Thursday.According to the minister, the US attacks promote extremist moods in the region.“Drones are not only completely illegal and unlawful and have no authorization to be used within the domains of international law but even more importantly, they are counter-productive to the objective of getting this region rid of militancy, and terrorism and extremism,” Hina Rabbani Khar said.“Because if one strike leads to getting you target number one or target number three today, you are creating five more targets or 10 more targets in the militancy that it breeds, in the fodder that it gives to the militants to attract more people to join their ranks.”“We are today in Pakistan suffering from the consequences of what many other powers of the world decided to do in that region to rid itself of the challenge that appeared in 1979, which was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,” she added. Allegations that the Pakistani security forces maintain close contact with Taliban and even sponsor them are old and do not even “worth a comment,” Hina Rabbani Khar said.“I think every intelligence agency in the world maintains ties with one group or the other and all of them at some level,” she said. “These ties are now pretty much out at the open because people are openly talking about talking to these people. This is something which is not even worth a comment.”—Dunya News Monitoring