Pakistan

Pakistan UFO Mystery Remains Unsolved
The Times of India, September 1, 2000

The guessing game still goes on regarding the mysterious objects that flew brightly in the skies of Baluchistan and neighbouring Afghanistan. It was a rocket, a missile, an extra-terrestrial body are the three views given by different people about the unidentified flying object (UFO) that landed in the hilly areas of Baluchistan and Afghanistan on August 15, 21 and 28. The areas where these objects fell are very difficult to approach, says Abdul Faiz claiming he saw one of them coming from West and going towards the country's Punjab province. He told IANS that it was "something very bright... it was as high as the nearby TV booster." Faiz, who works in a government department in Islamabad, was on holiday at his village near Qila Abdullah bordering Afghanistan. "It straight went into and probably crashed." He said he heard no sound of blast or anything else. Official sources say that they have not found any clue to the objects. They said an aerial reconnaissance was also carried out in Loralai, Barkhan and Kohlu, the places where the UFOs were sighted and where some of them reportedly fell. A helicopter was sent to carry out the task but it returned empty handed. Many wondered whether the U.S. had carried out another cruise missile attackon Saudi renegade Osama bin Laden's hideouts. "This wasn't the case...It is something else," a spokesman of Afghanistan embassy in Islamabad said.

He said that in Afghanistan many people saw it flying over their heads but nobody has seen the wreckage of the objects. He said the people who had seen the objects said they made no noise unlike the cruise missiles and were brightly lit. "They said the objects were flying towards Pakistan. Thus it became obvious that there was no fresh U.S. missile attack on Afghanistan," he added. An Afghan embassy spokesman said that it is possible that they were seen elsewhere in Afghanistan as well. But the poor means of communication could delay such information reaching the media. He, however, refuted some of the reports appearing in Pakistani newspapers that said the Taliban (Afghanistan's ruling regime) had fired the missiles on the bases of the opposition Northern Alliance, and that they must have missed their target and fallen at different places in Pakistan. "No missile had been fired by Taliban in these days," the spokesman said. "We are also worried and trying to find out reality," he said.

Newspaper reports said the UFOs were seen by Colonel Asmatullah, the military secretary of the Baluchistan governor. He said he saw them sailing over the Koh-i-Murdar mountain which overlooks Quetta. Baluchistan Home Secretary Major (Retd) Shahryar Khan Mahsud said he was using every means to unearth the mystery of the flying objects. "We would have dismissed it as a gossip if a few persons had seen them at a few places. But we are being told of sightings in several places in northern and central Baluchistan." However, when contacted by IANS, a spokesman of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) ruled out the possibility of any attack on any part of Afghanistan. "There was no veracity in such reports, the spokesman said. Though, the newspaper reports said the wreckage of the UFOs were found in the Baluchistan area bordering Punjab, it was not confirmed by officials."We don't believe on these reports. Nothing has been found. I sent a team to the place identified in one of the newspapers but people living nearby said that they have not seen any such thing," a senior Dera Ghazi Khan district official told IANS. Reports said the wreckage of the first object, which was seen flying overFort Munro, near Dera Ghazi Khan, on the night of August 15, was found near Tomali village. The second object was seen on the 27th. However, the exact place of its landing is not yet confirmed.