Both he and Akram Shah lived in the small village of Spulga, some 15 kilometers outside of Miranshah, in a large extended-family compound headed by another cousin, a prominent malik.341 Atiq-ur-Rehman, a young pharmacist, ran the Razmak Medical shop in the Miranshah bazaar.342 Irshad Khan, a teenage student, worked in Atiq-urRehman’s pharmacy.343 Umar Khan ran a local auto parts store.344 That evening, the five men—Akram Shah, Sherzada, Irshad Khan, Atiq-ur-Rehman, and Umar Khan—set out from Miranshah toward Spulga and the nearby village of Sirkot in Akram’s car.345 When the car was just two or three kilometers from Sirkot, it was struck by a missile.346 According to some press accounts, the drone operators missed their first five missile firing attempts and chased Akram’s car down the road, finally destroying it with a sixth and final missile.347 Other accounts state that Umar Khan escaped from the back seat after the car was hit, only to be killed by a missile seconds later as he tried to get away from the wreckage.348 Nadeem Malik was at the mosque some two kilometers away when he heard “the noise of the bombardment,” and rushed to the site of the strike.349 Several witnesses described the destruction of the car,350 which Abdul Qayyum Khan likened to “a sandwich bent in half.”351 Sayed Majid, whose cousin and two other relatives were killed in the strike, and Abdul Qayyum Khan, Atiq-ur-Rehman’s father,
Interview with Sayed Majid (anonymized name), in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012). Interview with Abdul Qayyum Khan, in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012); Interview with Sayed Majid (anonymized name), in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012); Reprieve, Complaint Against the United States of America for the Killing of Innocent Citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the UN Human Rights Council 10 (Feb. 23, 2012), available at http://reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_02_22_PUB_drones_UN_HRC_complaint.pdf?utm_so urce=Press+mailing+list&utm_campaign=89f3db0a752012_02_23_drones_UN_complaint&utm_medium=email [hereinafter Complaint to UNHRC]. 343 Interview with Nadeem Malik (anonymized name), in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012). 344 Interview with Sayed Majid (anonymized name), in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012); see also NWA Tribesmen Protest Drone Attack Casualties, supra note 331. 345 See Interview with Ibrahim Shah, in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012); see also NWA Tribesmen Protest Drone Attack Casualties, supra note 331; Complaint to UNHRC, supra note 342, at 10. 346 See Interview with Sayed Majid (anonymized name), in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012). 347 Eight Killed in Waziristan Drone Attacks, PAK TRIBUNE (June 16, 2011), http://paktribune.com/news/Eight-killed-in-Waziristan-drone-attacks-240425.html. 348 Interview with Abdul Qayyum Khan, in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012). 349 Interview with Nadeem Malik (anonymized name), in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012). 350 Interview with Sayed Majid (anonymized name), in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012) (“[the car] was destroyed. Fully destroyed. It was burned.”); see also interview with Abdul Qayyum Khan, in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012). 351 Interview with Abdul Qayyum Khan, in Peshawar, Pakistan (May 9, 2012). 341
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