Causes.org & PressTV – 2014-02-14 02:47:16
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/02/11/350155/pakistani-antidrone-activist-kidnapped
ACTION ALERT Free Kareem Khan, Kidnapped Drone Strike Victim!
Joan Sekler / CODEPINK, Women for Peace & Causes.org
“Kareem Khan, a drone strike victim, has been kidnapped from his home by Pakistani authorities, and no one has been told why or how long he will be held. Sign this petition calling for his immediate release!”
In 2009 Kareem Khan was devastated by the loss of his son and brother in a US drone strike. He has since sued the Pakistani government for its failure to investigate the deadly strike.
Just days before he was scheduled to travel to Europe to give evidence to parliamentarians, he was kidnapped from his home by 15-20 men in Pakistani police uniforms and plain clothes.
The men did not disclose their identities or the reason he was taken away. Mr. Khan’s wife, young children, and neighbor were present at the time. Despite numerous inquiries to the Pakistani police, Mr. Khan’s family has yet to be able to locate Mr. Khan or discover why he was detained.
Sign this petition to demand that the Pakistani government release Kareem Khan immediately! We will deliver the petition to the Pakistani embassy in DC.
Sign the Petition to His Excellency Ambassador, Mr. Jalil Abbas Jilani
The Petition
It has come to our attention that Kareem Khan, a drone strike victim, has been kidnapped from his home by Pakistani authorities, and no one has been told why or how long he will be held.
It is outrageous that Khan is being harassed after the terrible ordeal he went through losing his brother and son to a US drone strike in 2009. He is a crucial witness to the dangers of the CIA’s covert drone program, and has simply sought justice for the death of his son and brother through peaceful, legal routes. We urge the Government of Pakistan to release him immediately.
CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Pakistani Anti-drone Activist Abducted in Rawalpindi
PressTV
(February 11, 2014) — Kareem Khan was seized at his home by 15 to 20 men in the early hours of February 5 and has not been heard from ever since, his lawyer Shahzad Akbar said on Monday.
Khan’s brother and teenage son were killed in a US drone attack that targeted his home in the tribal area of North Waziristan in December 2009.
Despite the Pakistani government’s repeated calls on Washington to end the drone attacks, the US government continues its strikes on the Waziristan region.
Washington claims its drone strikes target militants, although casualty figures clearly indicate that Pakistani civilians are the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned attacks.
The slaughter of Pakistani civilians, including women and children, in the US drone strikes has strained relations between Pakistan and the US, prompting Pakistani officials to send warnings to the US administration over the assaults.
In his speech to the 68th United Nations General Assembly, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said last September that the drone strikes cause “casualties of innocent civilians and is detrimental to our resolve and efforts to eliminate extremism and terrorism from Pakistan. I have urged the United States to cease these strikes, so that we could avert further casualties and suffering.”
The United Nations and several human rights organizations have identified the US as the world’s number one user of “targeted killings,” largely due to its drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan Not Recording Civilian Drone Deaths: Report
PressTV
(February 1, 2014) — A Pakistani leaked official document has exposed the country’s refusal to record civilian deaths caused by US assassination drones in the war-wracked country.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) published a document on January 30, revealing that Islamabad stopped regularly recording civilian casualties by US drone strikes across the country after the year 2008.
The exposed document, recording details of 330 US drone strikes in the country, said the government was aware of hundreds of casualties done by US drone attacks, though it had officially refused to acknowledge such deaths.
The London-based body also indicated that some entries after 2008 were ambiguous, suggesting that information about civilian deaths were being deliberately concealed.
According to the report posted by TBIJ, the officials had used some vague terms such as “villagers,” “people” and “local tribesmen,” with no further details, in the records for 2009 to 2013. It went on to say that no names were mentioned in cases where senior militants were reported to be killed.
The report comes despite the fact that Islamabad has many times condemned the US drone strikes in the country, saying such attacks are counterproductive and that it is seeking international consensus over US illegal drone policy.
The unrelenting deadly airstrikes and drone attacks have left an unaccounted number of civilians dead across war-torn Pakistan.
Washington claims its drone strikes target militants, although casualty figures clearly indicate that Pakistani civilians are the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned attacks.
US Drones Disrupt Normal Life of Pakistani Civilians
PressTV
(March 15, 2013) — A political analyst tells Press TV that the drone policy violates the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan and it is disrupting the normal life of ordinary people living in the tribal areas.
The comments came after a UN team investigating civilian casualties from US assassination drone attacks in Pakistan stated that the terror airstrikes violate sovereignty of Pakistan. Ben Emmerson, head of the UN team, said in a statement on Friday that Pakistani government told him at least 400 civilians have been killed in US drone strikes.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Liaghat Ali Khan, professor at Washburn University, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Liaghat Ali Khan, we are looking at this report, at the same time we are looking at the new CIA director John Brennan who at one point even denied the existence of this drone program let alone the civilian casualties. What do you think Pakistan is going to do about this?
Khan: I am not sure what Pakistan is going to do about this but I think the United Nations reporter has made a very clear treating which Pakistan should consider.
First is that the drone policy violates the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan. Number two that lots of civilians have been killed which totally belies the US stand that only militants have been killed.
And very important, I think the most important finding of the reporter is that the drone attacks traumatize a way of living that the Pashtun people living in the tribal areas, they are under this trauma that anytime drones can kill them and therefore it is completely disrupting their normal way of life.
And I think Pakistan is under an obligation to restore the normal life in the tribal areas, negotiate with the United States so that these drone attacks are stopped right away because they are illegal, they are immoral and they have no excuse in a civilized world.
Press TV: And quickly if you can, we are looking at a death toll of four hundred, some estimates putting that over a thousand.
And more alarmingly, we are looking at how these drones which are classified also under signature attacks, pretty much put civilians who are even in the area at risk, such as reports of the strikes targeting people who go to rescue the civilians who were caught up in this.
Shouldn’t there be a more pro-active stance by the UN on this?
Khan: Yes I think that is the crux of the problem that maybe you can kill the killer. I think they are some justifications that you can kill the killer but that doesn’t justify that you disrupt the normal way of life of millions of people.
And I think what has happened is that the drone attacks have disrupted the normal life of many villages in the tribal areas and ordinary people you know going shopping, going to their work, they are under this constant fear that they will be killed. And I think this is unacceptable and this is what the United Nations has pointed out and this is the crux of the problem. It is not killing the killer. It is disrupting the normal life of ordinary people living in the tribal areas.
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