Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has indirectly admitted to supporting terrorist groups in the past under the influence of Western powers. In an interview with British broadcaster Sky News on Thursday (April 24), he stated that the Pakistani government had made the mistake of backing terrorist organizations at the behest of Western countries.
At the beginning of the 15-minute interview, the interviewer briefly outlined the context of the recent Kashmir attack. Midway through, the Sky News correspondent asked whether Pakistan has a long history of supporting and training terrorist groups and if he agreed with this statement.
In response, Khawaja Asif said, “For three decades, we carried out these dirty operations on behalf of the West, including the US and UK. Our government’s mistakes from that time continue to haunt us.”
Addressing allegations that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies supported terrorism, Asif said, “It’s easy to blame Pakistan. Many of the terrorists of today used to dine in Washington. I believe our government made poor decisions during that time.”
He further claimed that if Pakistan had not aligned with the US during the Soviet-Afghan war and the post-9/11 Taliban conflict, its record would have remained clean.
During the Soviet-Afghan war, Pakistan assisted and trained armed militants along the Afghan border on behalf of the United States.
Khawaja Asif’s explosive remarks come amid ongoing blame games between India and Pakistan following a deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, where at least 26 people were killed and 17 injured on Tuesday.
A group named The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the attack. Indian intelligence agencies allege that TRF is a covert branch of the banned Pakistan-based organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.