Drone attacks on tribal areas, particularly on Waziristan, continue with brief intervals while the US and NATO leadership is insisting Pakistan re-open supply for NATO forces in Afghanistan via the land routes of Pakistan, which were suspended after the November 26, 2011 Salala check post attack in which NATO forces killed 24 Pakistani military personnel. The drone attacks on Pakistani soil — a country known as a frontline state in the war on terror and a non-NATO ally of the United States — started in 2005, when on May 16, 2005, a US drone targeted a house in Toorikhel area of Mir Ali in North Waziristan Agency in which one person was killed. Although the US claimed that al Qaeda leader Haitham al-Yemeni was killed, it was not confirmed. Until the drone attack of May 24, 2012 in which a US drone targeted a mosque in Haso Khell village of Mir Ali sub-division of North Waziristan, 232 drone attacks were reported during the last seven years. According to reports from different quarters, 2,206 persons were killed in these attacks while more than 263 others were injured. Pakistan has repeatedly demanded of the US and NATO authorities to stop the attacks on Pakistani soil saying that these attacks are proving counter-productive as civilian casualties are providing reinforcement to militants. The US nonetheless claims that drone attacks have yielded better results by killing some top al Qaeda and Taliban operatives. When these claims of the US would be analysed, it would be proved false as no top al Qaeda or Taliban operative was killed in a drone attack except Baitullah Mehsud. The US has claimed the killing of Aiman al-Zawahiri, then second top leader of al Qaeda, Hakimullah Mehsud, the TTP Chief, Maulvi Faqir, deputy of Baitullah, and many more top militants, who later surfaced and proved the claims false. People across the globe have rejected drone attacks on Pakistani soil and talked about the futility and fatality of these attacks. It was brought into light by experts that US drones along with targeting militants are hitting local people who have nothing to do with militancy, but the rhetoric of the US military and civilian leadership is that results were achieved by these attacks as hundreds of militants were killed. US academia, intelligentsia and civil society activists have started raising voice against the drone attacks on Pakistani soil and called them violations of not only the sovereignty of Pakistan, but also violation of US laws. Even then, the US president has announced that drone attacks would continue on Pakistani soil. Daniel L Byman, a research fellow in the Brookings Institution, has voiced concern over civilian killings by US drones saying that drone strikes may ‘kill 10 or so civilians’ for every militant killed, while in contrast, the New America Foundation has estimated that 80 percent of those killed in the attacks were militants. The CIA believes that the strikes conducted since May 2010 have killed over 600 militants and have not caused any civilian fatalities, a claim that experts dispute and have called absurd. Rejecting the claims of the CIA based on research, the US Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that between 391 to 780 civilians were killed out of a total of between 1,658 and 2,597 and that 160 children are reported among the deaths. The bureau also revealed that since President Obama took office, at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. Besides experts, the United Nations has also expressed concern about civilian killings by US drones in Pakistan as on June 3, 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) delivered a report that was critical of US tactics saying that the US government has failed to keep track of civilian casualties. Despite giving an excuse and accepting that it was a blunder of the US administration, the US representative at UNHRC argued that the UN investigator for extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions did not have jurisdiction over US military actions. On October 27, 2009, the UNHRC investigator Philip Alston asked the US to show that it was not randomly killing people in violation of international laws through its use of drones on the Afghan border. He criticised the US’s refusal to respond to date to the UN’s concerns. On June 2, 2010 Alston’s team released a report based on its investigation into drone strikes and criticised the US for being, ‘the most prolific user of targeted killings’ in the world. After Pakistan suspended the NATO supply in wake of the Salala check post attack by NATO forces and forced the US to vacate Shamsi Airbase, drone attacks came to a halt. However, this proved very short-lived as after a 55-day lull, the US drones again started flying in Pakistani skies and resumed attacks on January 10, 2012, when a US drone targeted a house in the outskirts of Miranshah in which four persons were killed. During this year, 16 attacks by US drones were reported until May 24; 114 persons were killed in these attacks and more than 19 others were injured. Some experts were of the view that this calm of 55 days was a deliberate move of the US to give the Taliban and other militants in Pakistan a chance to re-group so that they could continue terrorist activities in Pakistan. Though the Hakimullah Mehsud-led Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) confirmed that militant organisations had agreed to avoid killing innocent people and kidnapping for ransom in Pakistan, at the same time they vowed to continue carrying out suicide attacks and fighting against Pakistan’s security forces, which speaks volumes about their hidden intentions to continue the destabilisation of Pakistan. These experts are of the view that on the one side, the US has entered into a dialogue with the Taliban in Afghanistan, while on the other hand, it is barring Pakistan from any peace activity with militants, which makes it evident that a hidden agenda exists. By linking the recent speech of President Obama about continuity of drone attacks, these experts claim that with these tactics of continuing drone attacks on Pakistani soil, the US wants to keep Pakistan tense and under pressure until it takes out its forces from the death trap of Afghanistan. Though the dialogue is under progress for the reopening of supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan and the US and European countries, which are part of NATO, are using pressure tactics on Pakistan, the Pakistani government should take a firm stance on cessation of US drone attacks and across the border attacks on Pakistani military installations. Pakistan should also take up the issue of cross-border infiltration from Afghanistan, as it is not only the main cause of terrorism in Pakistan, but also an excuse for the US to indulge in attacking Pakistani soil through drones. The writer is the editor of the FRC and can be contacted on ishfaq@journalist.com