Islamabad feels violated by America’s insistent probing

Punching holes into a US probe report of the cross-border Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year, the Army on Monday rejected it saying the country was considered in an “adversarial role” and not as a friend during the American inquiry.

“Pakistan does not agree with several portions and findings of the (US) investigation report as these are factually not correct,” said a terse statement from Inter-Services Public Relations, the media arm of the military.

Noting that the US investigating team’s mandate “was to conduct an operationally focused fact-finding investigation into the circumstances surrounding the engagement between friendly forces and PAKMIL (Pakistan Military),” the statement said it was implicit in this mandate that “Pakistan was considered in an adversarial role and not part of friendly forces”.

The military noted that the mandate given to the US investigating officer did not include “affixing specific responsibility” for the air strike. “Without this specific mandate, the investigation report could not have been complete,” it said.