ISLAMABAD: The Secretariat Police Station registered on Monday an application submitted by a victim of a drone attack seeking registration of a case against an American diplomat for the death of his son and brother in the tribal areas.
The application submitted by Kareem Khan, a resident of Mirali in North Waziristan, through his lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar, was sent by the police station to the prosecution department for legal opinion.
The complainant, whose son Zahinullah Khan and brother Asif Iqbal were killed in a drone attack in Mirali in December last year, was accompanied by some other people who had also lost their loved ones in such attacks in the area.
In his three-page application, Kareem Khan has alleged that Jonathan Banks, said to be a CIA official, is running a “clandestine spying operation” throughout the country, specifically in North Waziristan.
“Jonathan Banks is operating from the US embassy in Islamabad which is a clear violation of diplomatic norms and laws, as a foreign mission cannot be used for any criminal activity within a sovereign state. According to a news report, he is also believed to be on a business visa, thus having no diplomatic status whatsoever,” says the application, a copy of which is available with Dawn.
The complainant has also called for placing Mr Banks’s name on the exit control list (ECL).
When asked why had he waited for a year to register the case and that too in Islamabad when the crime had been committed in the tribal area, Mr Kareem only said: “I remained busy. The officials concerned in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are worst than the CIA.”
His lawyer said that since the Fata had been controlled directly from Islamabad and there were no police stations in the region, they had decided to file the case in the capital.
As far as the selection of the Secretariat Police Station was concerned, Mr Akbar said, the CIA functionary resided in an area in its jurisdiction.
Mr Kareem and other Fata residents have been staging a sit-in outside the Parliament House for several days in protest against the drone attacks.
A number of political leaders and parliamentarians visited the camp to express solidarity with them.
Mr Kareem also held a news conference last month and said he had sent to the US embassy a notice seeking $500 million as compensation for the death of his son and brother.
He declined to disclose the names of ‘friends’ who, according to him, had made arrangements for the tribesmen to stay in the capital.
His lawyer told Dawn that Mr Kareem also had a house in Islamabad. He said his client was a journalist and worked for foreign media organisations -– Al-Jazeera and Al-Qudus. The other drone-affected people are living in a house arranged by an NGO — Foundation for Fundamental Rights.
Mr Akbar said that police had told them to contact the Federal Investigation Agency and the Foreign Office to get the name of the US official placed on the ECL.
He said that police had been asked to register an FIR under the anti-terrorism act, adding that court’s assistance would be sought in police refused to register the FIR.
The court would also be approached for seeking compensation from the US government, he added.
