Musharraf cleared drone raids

Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf acknowledged in an interview with the CNN aired on Thursday night that his government secretly signed off on US drone strikes.He becomes the first serving or retired Pakistani official to publicly admit that the country had a deal on attacks by the CIA-operated spy planes.Musharraf said there was no blanket agreement with the US on the controversial drone campaign and that his regime had cleared missile strikes “only on very few occasions where the target was absolutely isolated and (the drone strike) had no chance of collateral damage.”The drone strikes were discussed “at the military (and) intelligence level” and cleared only if “there was no time for our own (special operations task force) and military to act.”“That was...maybe two or three times only,” he told CNN in an interview.Sometimes, he said, “you couldn’t delay action.”He added: “These ups and downs kept going...It was a very fluid situation, a vicious enemy...mountains, inaccessible areas.”Musharraf said that one of those killed by US drones was Nek Mohammed, a tribal warlord accused of harbouring Al Qaeda in the tribal belt. At the time, in June 2004, Pakistan intelligence said Mohammed died after Pakistani forces launched a missile at a house where he was staying.Musharraf’s admission suggests he and others did play some role even if they did not oversee the programme or approve every attack, CNN reported.Separately, on Friday, Pakistan locked down several key roads in the capital as Musharraf arrived in the Islamabad High Court to seek extension of his bail in the judges’ confinement case.The court extended his bail to April 18.As Musharraf reached the IHC, a number of lawyers protested against him outside the premises of the court.