Pakistan army chief apologises for civilian casualties

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s military chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Saturday made an unusual public apology over the killings of civilians during a security forces’ operation last week in a tribal region near the Afghan border.

Locals said that more than 70 non-combatants from the Kuki Khel tribe died and 50 were injured last Saturday when two jet fighters pounded a residential area in the Tirah valley, where government forces are fighting Islamists insurgents.

The army initially put the death toll at 42, claiming that all those killed were militants.

The position was corrected a week later when Kayani “apologised to the Kuki Khel tribe of Tirah Valley for an unfortunate incident” that “resulted in loss of precious and innocent civilian lives.”

Kayani offered his “heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families,” while stating that he had “ordered measures to avoid a re-occurrence of such incidents in future,” said a military statement.

The statement did not mention how many civilians were killed.

Residents of the village of Sara and a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity told DPA last Sunday that the jet fighters first bombarded a cluster of six houses and struck again when the people gathered to pull the dead and injured from the rubble.

A local intelligence official said “bad intelligence” might have resulted in the tragedy. Pakistan’s English-language Dawn newspaper reported that women and children were among the killed.

The incident generated sharp criticism from tribal elders, rights activists and local media, warning the military faced losing support for its US-backed assaults against Islamist extremists in tribal region.

“It was the first time any Pakistani army chief has formally apologised over the killings of civilians,” said an official at the military’s media wing.

“Although regrets had been expressed previously, the apology is the first,” added the official who requested anonymity.

Pakistani forces are conducting several operations in the tribal region from where Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters launch cross border raids on international forces in Afghanistan and also target civilians and officials in Pakistan, a key US ally in the fight against terrorism.

The remote, mountainous region remains almost inaccessible to journalists and chances of verifying the death toll announced by authorities are limited.