ISLAMABAD - Sensing adverse reaction from Pakistan Army, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has not shared the outcome on last month’s attack on Pakistan’s military pickets amid the reports that it does not intend to share those findings, it is learnt.
Informed officials shared with this newspaper, the Western military alliance has not formally communicated to Pakistan’s security establishment the detailed findings of the probe it launched on the November 26 attack on two military check posts in Pakistan‘s Mohmand Agency region that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The reports suggest that NATO had planned not to share the aforesaid report on account of an anticipated strong reaction from Pakistan’s military establishment that would further deteriorate the already dwindled ties between the ‘allies’, a reflection of which glimpsed on Thursday following the report’s release in Washington.
Hours after the Pentagon made the findings public and fixed ‘collective responsibility’ for the NATO attack on allied forces and Pakistan Army, the latter rejected the findings saying that it would offer detailed response once having formally received the report.
A military statement issued in this regard said that the Pakistan Army did not agree with the findings of the US/NATO inquiry as reported in the media.
‘The inquiry report is short on facts. Detailed response will be given as and when the formal report is received’, the statement said. When asked on Saturday, the Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Athar Abbas confirmed to The Nation that the NATO report was not shared with the Pakistan Army. The probe findings on high-profile cross border incidents, informed officials say, are shared within 24 hours with the authorities concerned, once officially released.
Sources recall, Pentagon had released the report on NATO attack in Mohmand Agency at 8:30 pm (according to Pakistan’s Standard Time-PST) or 10:30 am as per Washington’s time on Thursday.
However, till late night on Saturday, Pakistan military was neither formally communicated about the findings by the NATO nor anything to this effect was ever informally shared despite that over 48 hours had gone past since the release of NATO report, according to officials.
When contacted, the NATO-led ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) military spokesperson in Afghanistan Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson refused to comment on the issue and suggested to this scribe to contact NATO’s Air Operations spokesperson Christopher DeWitt.
DeWitt, according to Brigadier General Jacobson, was dealing with the NATO report on November 26th attack.
On contact, the spokesperson DeWitt, after having inquired from officials concerned, gave a single line statement on this issue before disconnecting this scribe’s call. ‘The NATO/ISAF would only share the report, wherever deemed necessary, so as and when required’.
Prior to the last month’s NATO attack in Mohmand Agency, that Pakistan Army termed as unprovoked and pre-planned, the NATO had announced launching probe into two aerial assaults in Pakistan’s north-western tribal region but the reports were never shared with Pakistan.
When asked on this, Brigadier General Jacobson expressed ignorance saying that he was not in knowledge of the issue. Pakistan had stopped NATO supplies to Afghanistan using Pakistan’s land route, declined participation in Bonn Conference, operationalised a sophisticated defence system at Western border and got the Shamsi base vacated from the US military after having announced reviewing rules of engagement with the US, in the aftermath of November 26th attack. Islamabad-based renowned social scientist Atle Hetland said national unity was the key if Pakistan was to go by what it had decided, of late.
‘It’s tricky because differences between political leadership and military on memogate episode could impact the kind of unity that is needed when you want to review rules of engagement with the US. It’s like this memogate affair may be exploited as a tool to divide power centres that would impact Pakistan‘s stand on NATO aggression’, he told TheNation.