*ISLAMABAD – Strange links have been found between drone strikes inAfghanistan and terrorism case in Pakistan.*
*Drone strikes have a bigger impact on Taliban and Al Qaeda violence inPakistan than in Afghanistan, researchers have found when looking at datafrom 2007 to 2011.*
An attack by the Taliban in Pakistan is 9% more likely to occur 5 daysafter a drone strike and 7.4% more likely to occur 6 days after a dronestrike.
“We also find that Taliban violence in Pakistan is negatively associatedwith Taliban violence in Afghanistan,” they said, “[as] 0.02 fewerterrorist attacks occur 16 days after one terrorist attack in Afghanistan.”
Their findings were published in a research paper titled, ‘Are DroneStrikes Effective in Afghanistan and Pakistan? On the Dynamics of Violencebetween the United States and the Talibanlink’. The paper isby David A Jaeger and Zahra Siddique and was published in CESifo EconomicStudies, in December 2018.
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America’s policy has been to use drones as the main weapon to fight theTaliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is how they carriedout targeted killings of terrorists in both countries. This strategy wasconsidered successful so America started using this tactic globally. TheCIA and its military greatly increased the use of drones around the world.
Drone strikes have killed important Taliban leaders but their use has beenunpopular in Pakistan because civilian casualties have been associated withthem. People also think that drone strikes have caused the Taliban toretaliate against the general public. Baitullah Mehsud had said, forexample, that they had attacked the Lahore police academy in 2009 asrevenge for drone strikes.
