Pakistan drone strike victim talks to the Bureau

The grief and destruction caused by a drone strike was described by a Pakistani anti-drone activist who lost his brother and son five years ago in the attack.

Kareem Khan was in London to address UK parliamentarians and told the Bureau’s Alice Ross US drone strikes kill ordinary tribal people and this fuels militancy.

On the night of December 31 2009 a missile strike killed his son Zahinullah Khan, 17, and his brother Asif Iqbal, 35, as well as Khaliq Dad, 40, a local stonemason.

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He was in Islamabad when he heard the news of the attack. ‘When I went home there was distress all around, my house was in rubble,’ he said. ‘My son and brother were in their coffins and my family was devastated.’

Alleged Pakistan Taliban commander Haji Omar was also reportedly killed in the attack. Khan vehemently denied this. He said: ‘Of course they would say they killed a militant whenever they hit someone’s house like they said in my case. I don’t even know who this Haji Omar is.’

Khan almost did not make it the UK. Shortly before he was to travel to Europe he was taken from his home in Rawalpindi. He said 15 people including some dressed as police took him and held him for nine days, torturing him during the detention.

Also in this episode, the Bureau’s Alice Ross discusses the more than two month break between drone strikes in Pakistan.

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