HANGU: A US drone strike that targeted a seminary in Tal area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu district early on Thursday, killed key members of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network among six persons.
The sources said that the drone fired three missiles on a seminary near Tandharo village, a few yards from Tehsil Tal’s main Tal bazaar, that left six persons dead and eight others injured.
Those persons who lost their lives in the US drone strikes included Kaleemullah, Abdul Rehman, Mufti Hamidullah Haqqani, Maulvi Ahmed Jan, Abdullah and Gul Marjan, the sources said.
According to the sources, Maulvi Ahmed Jan was a key leader of Haqqani network and he had come to visit madrassah teacher Gul Marjan.
Moreover, Abdul Rehman, an Afghan guest at the seminary, was also a key leader of the network, sources added.
The sources said that Maulvi Ahmed Jan and Abdul Rehman were also Afghan nationals and residents of Afghanistan’s Paktia province.
On the other hand, Pakistan strongly condemned the US drone strike in Tal area of Hangu and these strikes are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“Drone strikes are counter-productive‚ entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights and humanitarian implications. Such strikes also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations,” Foreign Office spokesperson Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said in a statement in Islamabad.
The spokesman said these drone strikes have a negative impact on the government’s efforts to bring peace and stability in Pakistan and the region.
Chaudhry said “Islamabad has been raising its concern over the drone strikes with the US administration and at the United Nations.”
