New Delhi:
When asked if Islamabad has a history of fundraising and supporting terrorist groups, Pakistan admitted to doing “dirty work” for the US and the West.
Khwaja M Asif was talking to the British news network Sky News. In the interview, the minister was asked, “Do you recognize that Pakistan has a long history of support, support, training and funding for these terrorist organisations?” The Pakistani minister said, “We have been doing this dirty work for the United States, including the West and the UK for the past 30 years.”
However, he quickly called it a “mistake” and said Pakistan “suffered because of that.” He added that Pakistan’s track record was “not essential” if Islamabad did not join the West during the Soviet-Afghan war after 9/11 and the US-led war with the Taliban.
The tolerance of Pakistani ministers who do “dirty work” by supporting terrorists in the US and West is triggered by the Pahargam terrorist attacks in which 26 innocent civilians were shot dead at a picnic spot in Baisalan Valley.
Pakistan supported the US in the Soviet-Afghan war by training and embracing armed extremists to fight the Soviets. The proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union gave Pakistan a key role due to its porous border with Afghanistan. The war ended with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the civil war. This saw the Taliban at the helm for almost a decade before the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre rocked the world.
Al-Qaeda in Osama bin Laden was given shelter by the Taliban in Afghanistan. On September 11, 2001, the terrorist group carried out its biggest attack on American soil, killing 2,996 people. The United States launched a full-scale invasion of Afghanistan, and once again Pakistan was at the heart of an operation to support US-led troops to uproot the Taliban.
Pakistan, which supported, funded and trained terrorists in the soil against India, is once again accused of supporting attackers who killed civilians in Pahargam. “The Resistance Front” (TRF), a derivative of Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of India’s most wanted terrorists, has argued responsibility for the attack.
Sources told NDTV that the attack was carried out by a hardened group belonging to the banned Rashkar e Tayba (let) terrorist organization, composed primarily of foreign terrorists.
Sources say the group has been active in Kashmir for a long time. Security agencies believe it is behind several well-known attacks across the region, including Sonamark, Bhuta Patri and Ganderbal.
In October 2024, four individuals, including two Indian army personnel, were killed in a terrorist attack in Bhuta Patri. In the same month, Sonamarg witnessed a fatal attack on construction workers in the tunnel. There, six workers and a doctor were shot. Hashim Musa is one of the main main people of the accused in the Pahargam massacre and is considered to be the suspect in this attack.
