LAHORE: In an unusual move, the Obama administration has withdrawn the
station chief of the American Central Intelligence Agency in Pakistan,
Jonathan Bank, due to security threats, after the was named in a
murder case by the Islamabad police for his alleged involvement in the
killing of two innocent civilians in a drone attack.
The complaint for registering a murder case against the CIA station
chief in Islamabad was filed last week by Kareem Khan, a resident of
the Mirali area in North Waziristan, who claims his son and brother
were killed in a US drone attack. Kareem, who is a local journalist,
stated in his complaint that a CIA-operated drone fired missiles at
his house on December 31, 2009, and killed his son and brother who
were innocent civilians and had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or
Taliban. The compliant he had filed with Islamabad police demanded the
registration of a case against the CIA station chief Jonathan Banks on
charges of providing operational guidance for the drone attack drone
attack that killed his dear ones. This is for the first time since the
American drone attacks started in the Pakistani tribal areas in 2004
that some victims of the missile strikes have sought a legal action
against the American CIA which is running the deadly drone programme.
A spokesman of the American embassy in Islamabad has now said that the
CIA station chief has now been recalled to Washington due to security
threats because his life seemed to be in danger following the lodging
of Kareem Khan’s complaint against him. Reacting to the reports about
the CIA station chief being recalled, Kareem Khan’s lawyer Shehzad
Akbar said: “This is a victory for our stand and has proved ourt
contention that as the Americans are killing innocent Pakistanis. We
will also approach the US courts to seek compensation for the killing
of innocent people and to stop these drone strikes”. Shehzad Akbar
said that on behalf of his client Kareem Khan, he has also served
legal notices to American defence secretary Robert Gates and CIA chief
Leon Panetta, asking them to pay $500 million to his client as
compensation for the death of his two innocent family members.
Well-informed diplomatic circles in Pakistan say the acceptance of
Kareem Khan’s application against the CIA station chief would not have
been possible without the consent of the Pakistani authorities and it
indicates that the mood in Islamabad’s corridors of power is changing
with regard to drone attacks. Islamabad’s diplomatic circles are abuzz
with speculation as to what could have caused this change of mood. One
reason being cited is a lawsuit filed on November 19, 2010 with a New
York Court with the backing of the White House against the ISI and LeT
by the relatives of those who were gunned down by militants at
Mumbai’s Chabad House on November 26, 2008. An American court in
Brooklyn court has issued summons to the present and former director
generals of the ISI, Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Lt Gen Nadeem Taj,
as well as leaders of Lashkar-e-Toiba Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and
Commander Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, while charging them with providing
material support for the 26/11 terror attacks. The lawsuit was filed
by the relatives of Rabbi Gavriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka,
who were both gunned down by militants in Mumbai.
The petitioners have also alleged that the LeT still operates training
camps in Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan and openly advocated
violence against India, Israel and the United States. It names
Muridke, Manshera and Muzaffarabad as centres of training camps
operated by the LeT. It also says that Pakistani American LeT
operative David Headley, who has already pleaded guilty for his role
in the plotting of the attack, built a network of connections from
Chicago to Pakistan, undertaking these efforts at the direction and
with the material support of both LeT and the ISI. Prior to and
following each trip to Mumbai, Headley reported to and received
further instructions from both the LeT, including defendants Majid and
Maj Iqbal and the ISI, it alleges.
It was hardly two weeks after the filing of the law suit in against
the ISI and the LeT in New York that Pakistani authorities allowed the
Islamabad police to register a murder case against a senior CIA
official based in Islamabad. Many in Islamabad’s diplomatic circles
are of the view that it could be tit for tat, in a bizarre battle of
one-upmanship between the agencies.
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