The family of a driver who was killed alongside Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in a US drone strike in Pakistan has filed a case against US officials, seeking to press murder charges, police said on Sunday.
Mansoor had entered Pakistan from Iran using a false name and fake Pakistani identity documents on May 21, when his car was targeted by a US drone. The driver, who was also killed, was later identified as Mohammed Azam.
The police filed a case on behalf of Azam’s family, police official Abdul Wakil Mengal said.
It was not immediately clear what legal avenues the family can realistically pursue.
In the case documents, his brother Mohammed Asim describes Azam as an “innocent man” and a father of four who was the family’s sole breadwinner.
“I want justice,” Asim said, according to the case file.
“In our view, both the [officials] who ordered and those who executed the drone strike are responsible for [killing] a man who had nothing to do with terrorism, who was a non-combatant,” Azam’s uncle, Allah Nazar, told reporters.
Nazar said his nephew’s death had broken the family, adding that, as well as caring for his children, Azam was supporting a disabled brother and his mother, who is blind.
“I have got a simple question to ask the American authorities, that’s how will this family survive?” Nazar said
He said the family was seeking financial compensation from the US and Pakistani authorities to support Azam’s family and fund his children’s education.
Pakistan has condemned the US drone strike, describing it as a violation of its sovereignty.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in