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PESHAWAR: Up to 71 civilians were killed in a weekend strike by Pakistani jets near the Afghan border, survivors and a government official said Tuesday - a rare confirmation of civilian casualties that risks undercutting public support for the fight against militants.
The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said authorities had already handed out the equivalent of $125,000 in compensation to families of the victims in a remote village in the Khyber tribal area.
Also Tuesday, a village elder claimed 13 civilians had been killed in US missile strike on Monday night elsewhere in the northwest, contesting accounts by Pakistani security officials that four militants were killed.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas on Monday denied that any of the dead in the Pakistani air force attack were civilians, saying the army had intelligence that militants were gathering at the site of the strike. The victims were initially reported to be suspected militants.
Two survivors interviewed Tuesday in hospital in the main northwestern city of Peshawar gave the first detailed account of the attack, which took place Saturday morning.
They said most of the victims were killed when they were trying to rescue people trapped by an earlier strike on the house of a village elder.
''This house was bombed on absolutely wrong information,'' said Khanan Gul Khan, a resident of the village who was visiting a relative in hospital. ''This area has nothing to do with militants.''
“There were no militants,” Ikramullah Khan Kokikhel, a tribal elder from Saravilla, told Reuters. “It was a house of a tribesman whose three sons are serving as (government) military men.”
Fighter jets first attacked the house Saturday morning.
When residents arrived to remove bodies from the rubble, the jets attacked again, witnesses said.
“It's cruelty. We want a court martial of those who were behind this loss,” said Kokikhel.
Zahir Noor, a villager from Saravilla, said there were bunkers around the village, but they were for defence against the militants.
“We have opposed them openly and never allow them in our territory,” he said.
The senior government official in the region, Shafeerullah Wazir, agreed most of the dead were not militants.
“We believe that the information about the presence of militants in this locality was incorrect,” he told a tribal gathering in Peshawar, the major city that borders the Khyber region. “We're investigating it.”
He apologised on behalf of the government and said he regretted the loss of life.
The military denied civilians were killed.
“The militants had built fortified bunkers and their hideouts were struck after we got ground confirmation by intelligence officials that they were present in their hideouts,” a military official said on Sunday.
Khan said many of the families in the village, Sara Walla, had sons serving in the security forces and that it had a history of cooperating with the army. He said the owner of the house that was bombed initially, Hamid Khan, had two sons serving in the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
He said 68 people were killed and many more wounded. The political official said Monday that the families of 71 victims had been compensated, but did not identify them.
Dilla Baz Khan suffered a fractured arm in the second attack, which he said came around two hours after the first one.
''We were about to pull out a lady from the rubble when another jet came and bombed us,'' he said from the orthopedic ward of the Hayatabad medical complex in Peshawar. ''Then I lost consciousness.''
He said an official from the Khyber political administration visited him Monday and give him $220 for the loss of four relatives, including his brother. ''He said we are sorry for this and we pray for your early recovery,'' he said.
The Pakistani army, under heavy pressure from the United States, has moved forcefully against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the northwest over the last 18 months. It regularly reports killing scores of militants in airstrikes, but rarely says it is responsible for civilian deaths.
Brief reports of significant civilian casualties in the strike Saturday have appeared in the local media in recent days, but have not attracted much attention or criticism.
An editorial Tuesday in Dawn, a respected English-language daily, said it was clear that the dead had no links to the militants and that the incident ''strengthens the hands of the Taliban.''
It said around 60 people were killed.
The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said authorities had already handed out the equivalent of $125,000 in compensation to families of the victims in a remote village in the Khyber tribal area.
Also Tuesday, a village elder claimed 13 civilians had been killed in US missile strike on Monday night elsewhere in the northwest, contesting accounts by Pakistani security officials that four militants were killed.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas on Monday denied that any of the dead in the Pakistani air force attack were civilians, saying the army had intelligence that militants were gathering at the site of the strike. The victims were initially reported to be suspected militants.
Two survivors interviewed Tuesday in hospital in the main northwestern city of Peshawar gave the first detailed account of the attack, which took place Saturday morning.
They said most of the victims were killed when they were trying to rescue people trapped by an earlier strike on the house of a village elder.
''This house was bombed on absolutely wrong information,'' said Khanan Gul Khan, a resident of the village who was visiting a relative in hospital. ''This area has nothing to do with militants.''
“There were no militants,” Ikramullah Khan Kokikhel, a tribal elder from Saravilla, told Reuters. “It was a house of a tribesman whose three sons are serving as (government) military men.”
Fighter jets first attacked the house Saturday morning.
When residents arrived to remove bodies from the rubble, the jets attacked again, witnesses said.
“It's cruelty. We want a court martial of those who were behind this loss,” said Kokikhel.
Zahir Noor, a villager from Saravilla, said there were bunkers around the village, but they were for defence against the militants.
“We have opposed them openly and never allow them in our territory,” he said.
The senior government official in the region, Shafeerullah Wazir, agreed most of the dead were not militants.
“We believe that the information about the presence of militants in this locality was incorrect,” he told a tribal gathering in Peshawar, the major city that borders the Khyber region. “We're investigating it.”
He apologised on behalf of the government and said he regretted the loss of life.
The military denied civilians were killed.
“The militants had built fortified bunkers and their hideouts were struck after we got ground confirmation by intelligence officials that they were present in their hideouts,” a military official said on Sunday.
Khan said many of the families in the village, Sara Walla, had sons serving in the security forces and that it had a history of cooperating with the army. He said the owner of the house that was bombed initially, Hamid Khan, had two sons serving in the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
He said 68 people were killed and many more wounded. The political official said Monday that the families of 71 victims had been compensated, but did not identify them.
Dilla Baz Khan suffered a fractured arm in the second attack, which he said came around two hours after the first one.
''We were about to pull out a lady from the rubble when another jet came and bombed us,'' he said from the orthopedic ward of the Hayatabad medical complex in Peshawar. ''Then I lost consciousness.''
He said an official from the Khyber political administration visited him Monday and give him $220 for the loss of four relatives, including his brother. ''He said we are sorry for this and we pray for your early recovery,'' he said.
The Pakistani army, under heavy pressure from the United States, has moved forcefully against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the northwest over the last 18 months. It regularly reports killing scores of militants in airstrikes, but rarely says it is responsible for civilian deaths.
Brief reports of significant civilian casualties in the strike Saturday have appeared in the local media in recent days, but have not attracted much attention or criticism.
An editorial Tuesday in Dawn, a respected English-language daily, said it was clear that the dead had no links to the militants and that the incident ''strengthens the hands of the Taliban.''
It said around 60 people were killed.
Da khar zaman!!
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