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US must hand over drone expertise to Pak: Haqqani | Reiterating Islamabad's consistent demand of having the drone technology, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani has urged the Obama administration to provide it the technical expertise to enable it to take stern
action against militants inside Pakistan's territory. "Pakistan would rather have the
technical expertise with which it can combat militants on its border with Afghanistan
than have the US fire missiles into Pakistani territory. The government of Pakistan
has repeatedly said that it would like to have the capability to identify the
targets on ground," Haqqani said. During an interview with the National Public
Radio (NPR), Haqqani said the Pakistani Army has the capability to take on the
extremists, but it lacks technical expertise to continue the war on terror. He
said that while the drone strikes have killed many top militant commanders, it
has also resulted in huge civilian casualties, which has added fuel to the anti-US
sentiment in Pakistan. "You must also understand that when you have unmanned
aerial vehicles drop missiles and kill innocents, it infuriates public opinion and then
obviously the Pakistani government has to stand by Pakistani public opinion,"
The Dawn quoted Haqqani, as saying. Responding to a question concerning
President Obama's plans to gradually pull out from Afghanistan, Haqqani said he
believes that the US would not abandon the war-ravaged country like it did in the
1980's. "My understanding from interactions with senior officials in the United States
is that the Obama administration does not wish to walk away from Afghanistan and
that it understands the cost of doing so. Nobody wants a Central Asian Somalia
or a failed state as a legacy," he said. "After all, they don't want anybody plotting
and planning attacks against America sitting in Afghanistan," he added. |
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