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U.S. Drops Bomb On Religious School during Border Clash: Pakistan
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Human rights activists chant anti-U.S. slogans
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ISLAMABAD,
January 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistan's
military said Thursday, December 2, a bomb was dropped on a school
inside Pakistani territory during a weekend clash between U.S. and
Pakistani forces, contradicting a U.S. military account of the raid,
as Pakistani legislators slam U.S. raid calling it an open violation
of Pakistan's sovereignty.
"During
an operation carried out by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a bomb fell
near the Durand Line in Pakistani territory," military spokesman
Major General Rashid Qureshi, referring to the tribal-dominated
north-west border with Afghanistan, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
There
were no casualties or damage and Pakistan's
military was probing the incident, he said.
The
U.S. military in Afghanistan said Tuesday, December 31, that one of
its warplanes dropped a bomb after a Pakistani border scout fired on a
U.S. patrol, injuring a U.S. soldier, near the Afghan frontier town of
Shkin Sunday, December 29.
The statement said close air support was called in to pursue the
border scout and his companions as they fled to a nearby building,
where a U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb inside Afghan
territory.
However,
residents of the Pakistani border district of South Waziristan said
U.S. warplanes dropped two bombs on the religious school, known as a
madrassa, in the Pakistani frontier town of Angoor Adda, some 400
kilometers (240 miles) southwest of the capital Islamabad. There were
no casualties as students were on holidays.
"Two
bombs were dropped on Maulvi Hassan Wazir's madrassa at Angoor
Adda," resident Salamat Jan told AFP, adding that one bomb landed
in the school's yard and another hit its outer wall.
"U.S.
warplanes bombed the madrassa," said another resident, Samad
Khan.
A
U.S. military spokeswoman said that the bomb fell inside Afghan
territory, 300 meters (yards) from a Pakistani checkpoint.
Qureshi
said he was unaware of a school being hit, but said there was a
deserted building in the area where the bomb fell.
Pakistani
Legislators Slam U.S.
Reports
of the school being hit have outraged residents and legislators in
Islamic-ruled North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where anti-U.S.
feeling has run high since the military attack on the country began 14
months ago.
The
NWFP assembly called the bombing a blow to Pakistani sovereignty and a
violation of its airspace in a unanimous motion passed Wednesday,
January 1.
It
called on the federal government to lodge a protest with the U.S.
government "against this flagrant violation of the country's air
space."
"This
is a question of our independence and integrity. The government should
ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future," said
legislator Ikramullah Shahid from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party.
Federal
MP Qazi Hussain Ahmad of the Jamaat-i-Islami party said mass rallies
against a possible U.S. attack on Iraq across Pakistan
Friday, January 3, would also protest the bombing.
"The
U.S. bombing of Pakistani territory is an open violation of Pakistan's sovereignty," Ahmed told AFP.
"The
rallies will condemn this U.S. interference."
U.S.
Reward to Pakistan for Its Unconditional Support
The
clash and bombing threatens to strain the ‘crucial cooperation’
between U.S. and Pakistani forces.
Qureshi
declined to comment when asked how the incident would affect the
partnership, pivotal to the al-Qaeda hunt.
Deputy
chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) party, Khurshid Ahmed, called the
bombing "an act of aggression and blatant violation of the
sovereignty of Pakistan."
"Is
this the reward that America is giving to Pakistan for its
unconditional support in the so-called war against terrorism ?"
Ahmed said in a statement issued in the eastern city of Lahore.
U.S.
forces hunt al-Qaeda regularly along the border while U.S. Federal
Bureau of Intelligence agents have been ‘assisting’ some 70,000
Pakistani troops on their side of the border in tracking down
fugitives, AFP said.
Unmanned
U.S. Drone Crashed in Pakistan
Meanwhile,
an unmanned U.S. spy plane crashed Wednesday shortly after taking off
from an airbase used by the U.S. military in southern Pakistan,
officials in Sindh province said.
The
surveillance drone went down in an unpopulated area some seven
kilometres (four miles) from the Shahbaz airbase in Jacobabad, Sindh
home secretary Aslam Sanjrani said.
"It
was a small U.S. surveillance plane which was unmanned and it crashed
around midday," Sanjrani told AFP.
The
aircraft crashed into a rice field near Juma Khan village after it
apparently developed technical problems during a "routine
surveillance mission," Jacobabad police chief Rana Fateh Sher
said.
There
were no casualties, the officials said, adding that the wreckage was
removed by U.S. personnel stationed at Shahbaz.
The
crash was the second in under three months at the base after a similar
U.S. drone went down in a field north of Jacobabad, which is home to
some 100,000 people, on October 17.
Pakistan
has been one of the United States' closest allies in its so-called war
on terror prompted by the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and
Washington.
But
a wave of anti-U.S. sentiment has swept through parts of Pakistan,
calling for an end to the U.S. military presence in the country.
A
day earlier, Pakistani human
rights activists held an anti-U.S. rally, as they urge the U.S. not to
attack on Iraq, in Rawalpindi.
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