PESHAWAR, Oct 12: The Fata chapter of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has condemned the killing of tribesmen in air strikes in North Waziristan and demanded of Islamabad to end the “massacre of innocent civilians in the agency”.

In a statement issued on Friday, the party’s information secretary for Fata, Said Wali Shah Afridi, claimed that more than 300 tribesmen had been killed in the bombardment by army aircraft in the agency.

He said the government had set a unique but dubious record by killing in large numbers its own citizens. Mr Afridi said the aerial bombardment razed houses and markets in many villages.

He said the killing of innocent people on the eve of Eid was a gift from the military rulers to their US masters who wanted to lay their hands on resources of small nations everywhere. He said the rulers had not even spared children, women and the elderly.

Mr Afridi said whenever the White House issued a baseless report about Fata, Pakistani rulers, in the name of war on terrorism, let loose a wave of terror on its own people. He said tribal people had been defenders of the country, but the military rulers had targeted them in order to prolong their rule.

He said the terrified tribesmen had started moving out of their ancestral villages after the air strikes. He said many of the uprooted tribesmen had now taken refuge in parts of Bannu. The PML-N leader added that after joining the so-called war on terrorism, the rulers had turned Fata into a battleground against its own people.