US can’t be trusted on drones issue: Pakistan minister

Islamabad – Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Friday said US assurances over the drone attacks issue could not be trusted, a media report said.

Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s advisor on foreign affairs and national security, Wednesday said in a briefing to a senate committee that the US had assured Pakistan that it would not launch any drone strikes during the peace talks between the Pakistan government and the Taliban.

But barely a day after Aziz’s statement, US drones fired missiles at a s! eminary in Pakistan’s northwest Hangu district Thursday morning, in which at least six people were killed.

Iftikhar Ahmad, district police officer of Hangu said a religious school, Madrassa Dar-ul-Uloom, was targeted by the US drones, and those killed include four students and two Islamic scholars who were believed to be associated with the Haqqani network.

He said that the killed scholars include Mufti Hameed Ullah and Mufti Ahmad Jan who had very good relations with the Haqqani network.

Nisar said he was dumbfounded on how Sartaj Aziz believed the US assurance over drone strikes, according to a report in the News International.

“Actions have made it clear that the US neither wants peace in Pakistan nor talks with the Taliban,” the report quoted Nisar as saying.

Thursday’s attack was the first in the country after the Nov 1 drone attack that killed Taliban chief Hakimulla Mehsud.

The Nov 1 attack seriously affected the efforts of! peace talks between the Taliban and the Pakistan government.