US strikes claim 2,200 since 2008: Islamabad

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Wednesday that 2,227 people have been killed in 317 drone attacks by the United States since 2008.

In an address to the nation's upper house of parliament, he said 2,160 militants and 67 civilians were among those killed.

The statement came a day after a victim's family from Pakistan's tribal area of North Waziristan testified at a joint US Congressional briefing in Washington on the drone strikes and their effects on the Pakistani people.

US lawmakers attending the briefing expressed their regrets over what had happened to the family and said it is important to have transparency in drone operations.

The interior minister, while giving details of terrorist attacks in the country in a written reply, told the nation's parliament that 6,149 terrorists have been arrested by law enforcement agencies since 2002.

He said 12,404 people have been killed in terrorist attacks and that 413 acts of terrorism, including suicide attacks, have taken place in the country since June. In his address, he said 13,223 people were given capital punishment since 2002; 501 of them were hanged.

The federal government, he said, is providing assistance to provincial governments to curb acts of terrorism.

(China Daily 10/31/2013 page12)