In the week since September 3, US military forces based in Afghanistan have struck repeatedly, in four separate incidents, on territory within Pakistan, killing scores of civilians, including several women and children. People's Voice strongly condemns these murderous attacks, which are a brazen violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan.

The attack on September 3 was the first ever ground troops assault by American troops on Pakistan in the name of pursuing those fighting their invasion of Afghanistan.  US helicopters crossed into Pakistani airspace without warning and dropped troops into a village in South Waziristan. As local residents, including women and young children ran out of their homes, the US soldiers shot them down in cold blood, killing more than 20.

With public opinion in Pakistan expressing shock and outrage at the attacks, both houses of parliament there passed unanimous resolutions denouncing the attack and calling on the government to deploy full force to repel such invasions of Pakistan’s territory.  President Zardari declared it an “outrageous and unacceptable violation of the territorial integrity of the country”. 

These repeated attacks by the US imperialists, coming one after the other, represent a major escalation of the US offensive in this region of the world.  Stung by the mounting resistance struggle of the people of Afghanistan to the US led NATO occupation force and the puppet regime of Hamid Karzai,  the US imperialists are hitting out at this resistance with all the force at their disposal. It may be recalled that just a few days prior to this, US forces bombed a village in Shindand district of Herat province of Afghanistan, killing seventy six women and children. This bombing was so outrageous, even Hamid Karzai was forced to condemn it. US led forces have carried out many such murderous actions in Afghanistan in recent months

The US is least bothered that Pakistan is a sovereign country, not under its occupation, unlike Afghanistan. The US is not bothered that Pakistan is its long standing strategic ally — both during the Cold War period, and in the “war against terrorism”. Not only that, in these latest raids on Pakistan, the US has openly admitted that it deliberately launched these attacks.  As one senior policy analyst in Washington arrogantly said about the Pakistanis, “they are unable to exercise sovereignty of their own territory so America has decided to exercise sovereignty in their stead.”

These attacks on Pakistan by the US imperialists are a wake-up call to all the peoples of our region. All the US moves over the last few years show that they are determined to establish their control over the strategically important region of South Asia. In pursuit of their predatory aims, the US imperialists will stop at nothing. US imperialism’s agenda in this region is thoroughly against the interests of sovereignty, freedom, peace and security of the peoples

Pakistan struck a strategic alliance with the US over the decades, to counter the threat from India, and to advance its own imperialist aims. Now, the state of Pakistan is weakened, and its government and armed forces are unable even to defend its people from imperialist aggression. The Indian working class and people must stand with the people of Pakistan, just as they must stand with the people of Afghanistan, in the face of US imperialism’s efforts to completely subjugate this region.