Pakistan Urges U.S. to End Drone Strikes After Taliban’s Deadliest Attack

Pakistan's parliament Saturday demanded an end to U.S. drone strikes on its territory and called for an independent probe into the raid by U.S. troops that killed Osama bin Laden to ensure there is no repeat.

The strongly worded message came after a joint sitting of parliament lasting more than 10 hours, during which lawmakers debated the "situation arising from unilateral U.S. action in Abbottabad" which targeted bin Laden.

Pakistan's intelligence chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha, chief of military operations and deputy chief of air staff, briefed the lawmakers in Islamabad.

Describing the continued drone strikes as "unacceptable", parliament said in a resolution: "Such drone attacks must be stopped forthwith, failing which the government will be constrained to consider taking necessary steps including withdrawal of (the) transit facility allowed to NATO."

Most supplies and equipment required by foreign troops in Afghanistan are shipped through the main northwestern border crossing, which comes under frequent militant attacks.

U.S. strikes doubled last year, with more than 100 drone operations killing over 670 people, according to an Agence France Presse tally, and the CIA has said the covert program has severely disrupted al-Qaida's leadership.

A U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border on Friday killed three militants.

It was the fourth such attack reported in Pakistan's tribal badlands on the Afghan border, which Washington has dubbed the global headquarters of al-Qaida, since U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

U.S. drone strikes inflame anti-American feeling in Pakistan, which has worsened since a CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistani men in a busy Lahore street in January, and over the perceived impunity of the bin Laden raid.

The lawmakers also called on the government "to appoint an independent commission on the Abbottabad operation, fix responsibility and recommend necessary measures to ensure that such an incident does not recur".

Parliament also "affirmed full confidence in the defense forces of Pakistan" and highlighted the importance of international cooperation to defeat terrorism "on the basis of a true partnership approach, based on equality, mutual respect and mutual trust."

The joint sitting was held in camera under tight security. Reporters were not allowed to cover the proceedings.

Pakistanis have been outraged at the perceived impunity of the U.S. raid, while asking whether their military was too incompetent to know bin Laden was living close to a major forces academy, or, worse, conspired to protect him.

Later Friday, Pakistan's Taliban had claimed their first major attack to avenge Osama bin Laden's death as 89 people were killed in a double suicide bombing on a paramilitary police training center.

Around 140 people were wounded, 40 of them fighting for their lives, in the deadliest attack this year in the nuclear-armed country where the government is deep in crisis over the killing of the al-Qaida chief by U.S. forces on May 2.

In the fallout over the unilateral raid and in another sign of damaged ties with wary ally Washington, an official said Pakistan's senior military officer General Khalid Shameem Wynne had cancelled a visit to the United States.

Friday's explosions detonated in northwest Pakistan as newly trained paramilitary cadets, dressed in civilian clothes, were getting into buses for a 10-day leave, police said.

"This was the first revenge for Osama's martyrdom. Wait for bigger attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.