Zardari ‘not bothered’ by deaths due to US drone attacks in Pak, says US journalist

WASHINGTON - A prominent US journalist has quoted Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari as saying that the deaths caused by US drone strikes in the tribal belt in Pakistan did not worry him, adding that he did not care if they so bothered Americans.

This statement of Zardari has been mentioned in a book ‘War of Obama’, written by famed journalist Bob Woodward, The News reported.

According to the book, Zardari, after being elected as the president of Pakistan, held a meeting with then CIA Director General Michel Hayden on November 12, 2008 in New York.

During the reported meeting, Hayden informed Zardari about killings of some US citizens, among other tribal people, in a drone attack carried by the US in Pakistan.

In reply, the Pakistani president said that deaths inflicted by drone attacks might bother Americans but not him (Zardari), Woodward noted in his book.

The book also quoted Zardari, as wishing that senior Taliban commanders, too, should be targeted. (ANI)