Collateral damage is referred to accidental deaths that happen in a military operation. The term became popular after the drone strike in Iraq that killed some children in a van.
Let us get to 21 May. There was an airstrike on Miranshah in which around 60-70 people died. In the beginning, everyone was celebrating that Pakistan Army had killed militants. Nevertheless, later on social media news starting to emerge that in fact many civilians died in that attack.
Picking that up some media organizations also started reporting that some civilians had died. Here is what AFP said about it,
“There were reports of some civilian casualties including women and children but the security official did not confirm them.
Independent verification of the toll and identity of the dead was not possible as journalists are not allowed to enter the area.”
Miranshah is a city in North Waziristan in Pakistan. The area is mountainous however, different localities exist in the region near the Tochi river.
The aerial strike was said to be carried out in the same region where the localities exist as an intelligence official puts it on Express Tribune ‘the main town of North Waziristan, Mir Ali, Datta Khel and Ghulam Ali areas’ were targeted.
In addition, some pictures from Go Khan Maseed show the same on facebook.
The pictures show the damaged buildings in Miranshah, as per the source of the photos.
Later, Tribune reporter also clarified that independent sources have said that civilians died in the attack. The report cited “Independent sources put the casualty figure at 70 dead and 50-plus injured – among them women and children.”
However, to be sure that the reports by AFP and tribune were right a thread was made on defence.pk – Self claimed authoritative source on Pakistan defense. However, the thread was deleted within hours and sadly; no post on the page was available. Later, another thread was again made on the same forum. The thread was being watched so that it is not deleted. In that thread, many defense forum users said that though they are sad that civilians died in the aerial strike but these should continue.
Surprisingly, the same statement, when it was given by US while carrying drone operation in North Waziristan, was denounced by the same Pakistani’s saying that civilians were dying in those drone strikes.
F.O.X a PDF think tank assumed that even if his own kid was trapped in there he would have called the shots. Another user Desert eagle in the beginning denied the report however after he was shown some images and was asked to verify it through google image search he agreed but still was in favor of the aerial strike.
A good question that was put in front after the thread ‘Were those killed in Miran shah aerial strike civilians?’ was ‘do you have a better option that doesn’t involve killing of civilians’.
On which a user from India asked why Pakistani’s yell when American’s do it and celebrate when they themselves kill civilians isn’t it hypocrisy?
It was also suggested on the forum that drone strikes are more precise than aerial strikes as they are the latest technology and much more precise than aerial strikes. The explanation for it was provided that aerial strikes are made at a speed close to the speed of sound. Thus, cannot save from collateral, however, drones can track, hover and strike steadily.
However, most people on the forum were of the view that it was depressing that civilians died however, the strikes should continue otherwise more civilians will die.
Sadly, the forum was again deleted by the moderator Aeronaut, who also alleged in his message that ‘no deaths were reported and this is disinformation’ – May be he has not read AFP or Express Tribune reports.
Now a question is, can we afford some civilian deaths so that many civilians can be saved?
May be we can as most people think like that. However, that is in total discord with the Hadith of Muhammad PBUH. As narrated By Ibn 'Umar, ‘During some of the Ghazawat of Allah's Apostle a woman was found killed, so Allah's Apostle forbade the killing of women and children.’
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