ISLAMABAD: The government is considering setting up a panel to investigate the cases of non-combatant Taliban prisoners amid reports that the military is reluctant to support their release. Last month the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) handed over a list of 300 detainees, including women and children, to peace negotiators and demanded they be freed before the peace process could pick up pace. “A group or committee may be set up to investigate the cases,” an official said yesterday. He said the proposal had been discussed but a final decision has yet to be taken. A TTP intermediary confirmed the development.
Drones targeted with posters of child victims
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani artists are hoping to generate “empathy” among US drone operators by placing giant posters of children meant to be seen from the air in the troubled tribal regions.
The project, #NotABugSplat, has released a photograph, taken from the air with the use of a mini-helicopter drone, of a poster laid out in a field that shows the face of a girl who lost her parents in a controversial strikes in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Bug splat” is said to be a term used by drone pilots in the US to refer to how victims look when seen through video cameras. “We tried to replicate as much as we could what a camera from above will see looking down,” said one of the artists. AGENCIES
