Ever since condemnation of drone attacks by the chief of army staff last month there has been no Predator attack in the country during the past three weeks.
The CIA has been launching drone attacks on almost a daily basis but a substantial decrease was witnessed after the arrest of Raymond Davis, the CIA undercover agent who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27 this year. On the release of Raymond Davis, a major drone attack took place in the Dattakheil area of North Waziristan Agency that claimed the lives of over 40 civilians. The COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani strongly condemned the drone attack.
The Conflict Monitoring Centre (CMC), a watchdog that closely monitors the drones and other anti-state militancy, says that ever since the COAS condemned the drone attacks, the CIA has stopped its drone operations in Pakistan.
A spokesman of the CMC also says that drone attack had almost dried up during Davis’s detention but soon after his release a major attack was conducted in North Waziristan which was condemned by General Kayani for the first time.
According to a Reuters’s report, a senior Pakistani intelligence officer was quoted as saying that joint US-Pakistan intelligence operations have been halted since late January. ‘Uneasy US-Pakistani ties have become even tenser after a string of diplomatic disputes so far this year, including a massive drone strike in March and the case of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis on January 27 in Lahore’, Reuters reported.
It is worth mentioning here that drone campaign had killed 938 people in 132 attacks during the year 2010. On the average, each month of the last year witnessed 11 drone attacks and killings of 77 people. As such, there was no significant change in intensity of drone attacks in the New Year till Raymond Davis issue emerged. The US had intensified drone attack campaign since the beginning of the last year as the first month of the year 2010 had witnessed 12 drone attacks and killings of 107 persons. Earlier, 1,114 people were killed in 96 drone attacks from 2004 to 2009. An unprecedented increase in drone attacks was observed during the last four months of the year 2010. During this period, 451 people were killed in 51 drone attacks. On the average, each month 113 people were killed in 13 attacks. The number of attacks during the month of January 2011 showed no change in the intensity of the drone strikes.
The first US drone attack inside Pakistan was carried out against the Taliban commander Moulvi Naik Muhammad on June 18, 2004. It was the only attack during the year. There were only nine attacks reported from 2004 to 2007. Out of them, six were carried out in North Waziristan. President Bush had intensified the Drone campaign inside Pakistan during the last year of his tenure. Consequently, 34 such attacks and killing of 296 people were reported during the year 2008. It was expected that newly elected President Obama would review US drone policy. But he not only continued it but also intensified to the unprecedented level. US killed 709 people in 53 drone attacks in the year 2009. Due to weak public and government reaction to these attacks in Pakistan, the US government was encouraged to increase the intensity of drone attacks to unprecedented level in 2010 killing 938 people in 132 attacks. So far - from 2004 to April 10, 2011 - US drone campaign has killed at least 2,300 persons in 245 attacks in Pakistan.
