ISLAMABAD: A civil society organisation has recorded the names of 700 people who were killed in drone attacks in Pakistan.

Nearly half (323) of them were reported to be civilians, including 99 children, it said.

The names of the victims were recorded by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism under a project ‘Naming The Dead’.

But those identified still make up fewer than one in three of the 2,342 people reportedly killed in the drone attacks.

The Bureau said it used open source materials to monitor and record the drone attacks. The data showed that at least 2,342 people were killed in the attacks in the tribal areas.

The US authorities say only militants are killed in drone strikes but the bureau claimed that only 295 militants reported killed in the drone strikes had been identified.

There are an additional 95 people marked as ‘unknown.’ It is unclear whether they were civilians or militants.

The bureau also cited reports suggesting that at least 168 children were killed in the drone strikes. About 67 of the 99 children identified by names were those killed in a single attack in October 2006 on a madressah in Bajaur Agency.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014