PESHAWAR, Feb 2: The Amnesty International (AI) has expressed concern over Jan 13 air strike, killing civilians in Damadola village of Bajaur Agency. According to a press release, the AI voiced the concern in a letter addressed to US President George Bush on Thursday.

The letter says reports indicated that missiles were fired from a Predator drone stated to be operated by the CIA. Their intended target appears to have been Ayman al-Zawahiri, a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative, who was reportedly not among the dead.

The pattern of killing, it says, appeared to reflect the US government policy condoning extrajudicial executions and reiterated that the extrajudicial killings are strictly prohibited under international human rights law.

Anyone accused of an offence, however serious, has the right to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty and to have their guilt or innocence established in a regular court of law in a fair trial.

The fact that Pakistan and the US closely cooperate on security issues and that the US believed they knew the location of suspects, suggests that it may have been possible to attempt to arrest the suspects to bring them to trial. The failure to attempt such arrest points to a policy of elimination of suspects and a deliberate disregard of the duty to prosecute in a fair process.

Air surveillance, witnessed by local people, took place for several days before the attack indicates that those ordering the attack on the basis of this information were very likely to have been aware of the presence of women and children and others unconnected with political violence in the area of the attack.

Reports about the identity of the victims remain confused.

While the government of Pakistan regretted the deaths of 18 innocent local people, the head of the Bajaur administration said that up to five foreign militants had been killed and their bodies had been removed by associates.

Security officials were subsequently quoted in Pakistani media as saying that the dead included Abdur Rehman al-Maghribi, the Moroccan son-in-law of al-Zawahiri, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, an Egyptian explosives expert, and Abu Obaidah al-Masri, Al Qaeda’s chief of operations in Afghanistan’s Kunar province.

As no bodies were produced other than those of non-militant victims, it is unclear on what basis this identification was made.

Pakistani journalists who interviewed local people said the victims were all civilians, including five women, five children and eight men, and that reports of militants killed in the attack were intended to justify an attack based on faulty intelligence.

Bajaur MNA Haroonur Rashid, who was in the area at the time of the attack, said he knew all the victims personally and categorically denied reports of bodies of militants being taken away.