PESHAWAR, May 21: Awami National Party (ANP) president Asfandyar Wali Khan said on Saturday that the killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad on May 2 was a welcome development but expressed concern over unauthorised operation by US forces in violation of the country's sovereignty.

Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the party's think-tank at the Chief Minister's House, he said that it was an encroachment on the country's sovereignty that foreign forces killed a person without the knowledge of the government.

He said the US had violated Pakistan's space on that day and violated international law.

Mr Khan said that his party would have no objection had the operation been conducted within legal parameters. The ANP was deeply shocked and had reservations about the mechanism adopted by the Americans for conducting the Abbottabad operation, he said.

“We are strictly opposed to the US drone strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas because they killed general population, including women and children and elderly people, for no fault of theirs. They had caused collateral damage and the situation was exploited by militants to their advantage,” he said.

The strikes from the unmanned US aircraft were creating a soft corner for terrorists among local people, he said.

He said these actions in tribal areas encouraged the youth to become suicide bombers. He said the drone strikes were condemnable even if key terrorist figures were killed in these attacks, he said. “The ANP is against any foreign interference in the country's internal affairs.”

Mr Khan called for the formation of an independent commission to conduct an inquiry into the Abbottabad operation as soon as possible and urged the government to take steps to avoid recurrence of such incidence.

He said his party's think-tank had endorsed the resolution passed by the in-camera session of parliament.

The ANP chief said the presence of militants in Pakhtun-dominated areas had always been opposed by his party. “We want action against Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and other foreign terrorists in tribal areas,” he said.

He said his party was ready to hold talks with militants if they accepted the writ of the government, shun violence and withdraw support to foreign terrorists.

Mr Khan said the ANP had reached peace agreements with the Taliban in the past and were not shy of holding talks with them only when they laid down arms and denounced militancy.

According to him, he saw no prospects of immediate withdrawal of the Americans, who he said had come here in pursuit of the fulfilment of their interests and would stay here till accomplishment of their mission.

Mr Khan said that the US would not repeat its past mistake of dumping Afghans after withdrawal of its forces and would try to stay longer in Afghanistan. ANP's Deputy General Secretary Hasham Babar, provincial president Senator Afrasiab Khattak and other leaders and provincial ministers were also present on the occasion.