Pakistan dismisses US report on NATO strikes

Pakistan’s top leaders have rejected a US central command, Centcom, report about the inquiry report of the November NATO strikes on two border posts which had killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The Centcom report had claimed that Pakistani forces had first fired at NATO forces in Afghanistan, which promoted air strikes by the US fighter jets and helicopters. Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC), which met late Saturday, discussed the Centcom report and formally rejected the report, official sources told the media. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani presided over the meeting, attended by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, all services chiefs and key ministers. The PM observed that only regret by the US and NATO officials over the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers was not sufficient. The meeting referred to the army’s inquiry report saying that NATO had not informed Pakistani forces prior to the attack on two posts in Mohmand tribal region. “Pakistani forces informed NATO officials about the first strike but despite this another attack was carried out,” the DCC said. Pakistan as a protest had closed supply line for NATO forces and Afghanistan and vacated a strategic air base in Balochistan province from the US forces. The meeting also demanded the US to stop drone strikes in the tribal regions and said it will fully endorse recommendations by the parliamentary committee about the future relationship with the US, NATO and ISAF.