Why did the US drone strike hit Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in Pakistani territory
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ISLAMABAD: Why US drone striked Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in Pakistani territory
Afghan Taliban have confirmed the news of death of their ex. Supreme commander Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in a drone strike in Baluchistan province of Pakistan bordering Pakistan - Iran - Afghanistan.
Moulana Haibutullah Akhunzada has been appointed as the new Afghan Taliban Commander by the Taliban Supreme council while Siraj Uddin Haqqani and son of Mullah Muhammad Umer, Mullah Yakub have been designated as his two deputies.
However the question arises that why Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was drone striked in the Pakistani territory of Baluchistan when he had just crossed the Iranian borer and entered Pakistan.
New York Times quoting the reliable sources have also confirmed that Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was in Iran and when he entered Pakistan he was tracked and targeted inside Pakistani soil.
Sources confirm that Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has travelled to different countries including Pakistan, Iran and Oman many times in last few years and 13 such trips have positively been identified and out of which two recent trips were made to Iran.
US Wall Street journal confirmed that Mullah Akhtar Mansoor family is residing in Iran and Mullah Akhtar Mansoor went to Iran to meet his family along with some other commitments.
US authorities were constantly tracking Mullah Akhtar Mansoor through his mobile phone, both Wall Street journal and New York Times confirmed it.
However the questions arises if he had frequently travelled to many part of the region then why was he targeted only inside Pakistan while he had just entered Pakistani territory.
What objectives United States wanted to achieve by targeting Mullah Akhtar Mansoor inside Pakistan.
- United States wants to assure rest of the world that Pakistan is harbouring Afghan Taliban.
2. United States wants to tell Afghanistan that Pakistan is the real culprit for all their problems hence further deteriorating the Pakistan - Afghanistan relations.
3. US did not attack Mullah Akhtar Mansoor inside Iran fearing the back lash from Iranian authorities of drone strike.
4. To put further pressure on on Pakistan to do more against terrorism.
5. US wanted to scale down Pakistan Army efforts of Operation Zarb-e-Azab which has successfuly eradicated terrorism in Pakistan.
6. US may want to stop the F-16 sale to Pakistan and the military findings to the Armed Forces on behest of Indian authorities.
7. Latest reports mentioned in New York Times suggest that Pakistani authorities cooperated with US in the intelligence information regarding the drone strike in order to kill Mullah Mansoor. The argument seems ridiculous as why would Pakistan want a drone strike inside Baluchistan by US and why would Pakistan like to deteriorate it's relations with the Afghan Taliban.
This seems to be an effort to malign and deteriorate the Pakistan relations with Afghan Taliban in order to increase troubles for Pakistan.
Last but not the least the most worrisome factor is that US has shown it's drone presence in Baluchistan area of Pakistan, an area marked for China Pakistan Economic Corridor project CPEC, giving an indication that US is watching the CPEC route actively.
US has further announced to track the terrorists any where in the region including sovereign territory of Pakistan.
If the things continued to happen like this and Pakistan did not raise the voice then wait for the day when the headlines of national and international media would break the story of some drone strike in Lahore or Islamabad.
