Although it has long been known that the Pakistani military trained the so-called mujahidin that fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan under CIA tutelage, Pakistan preferred to remain in the denial mode much like it does in respect of Jihadi groups that operate as the foot soldiers of ISI for duty in the Kashmir theatre. So much it comes as a surprise when Prime Minister Imran Khan deemed it fit and proper to admit on the American soil that too when he was on Mission Kashmir, to confirm the home truth is respect of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups Pakistan had deployed on the Afghan theatre.
Addressing the Center for Foreign Relations in New York on Monday, Sept 23, 2019, the ‘selected’ Prime Minister of Pakistan ‘directly’ and ‘specifically’ confirmed the Pakistan Army, and its intelligence agency, ISI, trained al -Qaida, and other terrorist groups to fight in Afghanistan.
Osama bin Laden formed Al-Qaida in Peshawar on August 11, 1988. Soviet troops withdrew in February, 1989. Khan admitted that the Pakistani military continued to have links with the outfit even after the US too had quit the scene.
“There were always links between Pakistan and …there had to be links … because they trained them,” Khan said when asked about whether Pakistan had gotten to the bottom of how Osama bin Laden had ended up in a Pakistani military cantonment.
“There were always links between Pakistan and …there had to be links … because they trained them,” Khan said when asked about how Osama bin Laden had ended up in a Pakistani military cantonment.
Imran Khan also spoke about the U-turn his county made after 9/11. He said when Pakistan did a 180 degree turn against the terrorists after 9/11 and went after them, not everyone in the Pakistan military agreed with it, resulting in insider attacks against President of the day, General Musharraf. Any contacts with Osama bin Laden at the time he was killed by US Navy Seals in Abbottabad would have been at lower levels, Khan surmised.
Khan’s startling move implicating the Pakistani military in New York, where he is on a “Mission Kashmir” aimed at portraying India as the aggressor, embarrassed some of his countrymen, one of whom ad-libbed the country Army chief as saying, “damn, he’s an even more dangerous duffer than we are,” according to a media report
Pakistan has tried for years to terror tag India by building up files and dossiers alleging New Delhi’s role in purported terrorist acts in Baluchistan, but the country’s jihad mill has continued to produce terrorist graduates, one of whom, son of an Air Vice Marshal, tried to bomb Times Square, a few blocks from where Khan was speaking. Other terrorists trained or indoctrinated in Pakistan have carried out attacks from Manhattan to Mumbai.