...

Pakistan refuses to take part in US investigation of NATO attack

Other News Materials 3 December 2011 13:39 (UTC +04:00)
Pakistan has refused to take part in a US investigation into an attack on a border post by NATO helicopters since it has "lost trust" in such probes, a military spokesman said Saturday.
Pakistan refuses to take part in US investigation of NATO attack

Pakistan has refused to take part in a US investigation into an attack on a border post by NATO helicopters since it has "lost trust" in such probes, a military spokesman said Saturday.

The United States had asked Pakistan to take part in the investigation into the November 26 airstrike in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed, Defence Department spokesman, George Little, told reporters on Friday.

But Pakistan had declined to be part of the probe as similar investigations in the past had failed to assign responsibility for attacks or reach any definite conclusions, a military spokesman told dpa.

"There was no result in three previous probes about cross border attacks, so why we should believe that this one will be result- oriented and hence different from the others?" he said.

The US has already tasked Brig Gen Stephen Clark of the Air Force Special Operations Command with leading the investigation. State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said Friday that the findings would be made public.

Pakistan and the US have given different accounts of the incident, which has further strained relations already under duress due to the killing of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor earlier this year and the unilateral US raid in which terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was killed in May.

Pakistan has reacted angrily to the strike, blocking NATO supply routes passing through its territory and boycotting the international conference on Afghanistan in the German city of Bonn, scheduled to begin on Monday.

Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has also authorized local commanders to return fire during any future cross border incursion without receiving formal permission from command headquarters.

Latest

Latest