ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office confirmed on Sunday that the Pakistani leadership had been informed about the United States (US) drone strike in the country against the Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Mansour a day earlier.
Mansour was reported killed in a drone strike in Balochistan near the Afghan border.According to the statement issued by the Foreign Office, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif were informed about the drone strike that likely killed Mansour.
The statement adds, “According to the information gathered so far, a person named Wali Muhammad s/o Shah Muhammad carrying a Pakistani passport and an ID card, resident of Qilla Abdullah, entered Pakistan from Taftan border on May 21. His passport was bearing a valid Iranian visa. He was travelling on a vehicle hired from a transport company in Taftan. This vehicle was found destroyed at Kochaki along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The driver’s name was Muhammad Azam whose body has been identified and collected by his relatives. The identity of the second body is being verified on the basis of evidence found at the site of the incident and other relevant information.”
The statement adds that the drone attack was a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and said Islamabad wanted to remind the world that the fifth meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) held on May 18 had reiterated that a politically negotiated settlement was the only viable option for lasting peace in Afghanistan.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials earlier said the drones struck a car near Quetta, killing two people whose bodies were burned beyond recognition.
They did not confirm whether Mansour was among them but said the bodies had been moved to a hospital in Quetta.
The FO’s statement comes hours after it said Pakistan was ‘seeking clarification’ on the reported drone strike targeting Mansour. “I have seen the reports. We are seeking clarification,” Nafees Zakaria said in a statement. He added that Pakistan wanted the Taliban to return to the negotiating table to end the long war in Afghanistan. “Military action is not a solution,” he added.
Earlier on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry also stated that he had notified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by telephone of a US drone strike that ‘likely killed’ Mullah Mansour.
The Afghan leadership was also apprised of the strike ordered by US President Barack Obama, Kerry said.
“Yesterday, the United States conducted a precision air strike that targeted Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Mansour posed a continuing, imminent threat” to US personnel and Afghans,” Kerry told a news conference in the Myanmar capital.
“This action sends a clear message to the world that we will continue to stand with our Afghan partners as they work to build a more stable, united, secure and prosperous Afghanistan. Peace is what we want. Mansour was a threat to that effort and to bringing an end to the violence and suffering people of Afghanistan have endured for so many years now. He was also directly opposed to the peace negotiation and to the reconciliation process,” he added.
Moreover, a senior commander with the Afghan Taliban said Mansour was killed in a US drone strike. Mullah Abdul Rauf Sunday said that Mansour died in the strike late Friday night. He said the strike took place ‘in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area’.
Separately, a member of the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban’s leadership council, said that Mansour had been unreachable on his mobile phone since Saturday night. “We are not sure if something is really wrong or he purposely switched off his phone fearing an attack,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Former ambassador to Afghanistan Rustam Shah Mohmand weighing in on the matter said that it was ‘quite likely’ that Mansour is dead.
The drone attack came just days after representatives from the US, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan held another round of negotiations in Islamabad aimed at reviving long-stalled direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
