Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday gave a statement that has exposed both Pakistan and US on the front of Afghanistan. In an interview with Russia Today, Khan said that his country should have been neutral over the American troops’ actions against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He further said that the Mujahideens, that were trained by Pakistan, have now turned against the country, which further proves the fact that it was Pakistan who sowed the seed of terrorism in the Indian subcontinent and that it stems from the geopolitically unstable country of Jinnah.
Both countries’ vested interests in Afghanistan have created the cesspool of terrorism, violence, political instability and unrest that has plagued the subcontinent since then.
Pakistan has not only supported and aided Al-Qaeda through Taliban but has used the terror group to train and arm local militants and deploy them against Afghanistan and India both. But Imran dropped a major bomb when he said that it was America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that funded the Mujahideens trained by Pakistan.
According to ANI, Imran Khan has said that Mujahideens were nurtured and developed by Pakistan to do Jihad against the Soviets when they had occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s. “Now a decade later when the Americans come into Afghanistan, the same groups who are all in Pakistan are supposed to say that now because Americans are there, it is no longer jihad its terrorism. It was a big contradiction,” said Imran Khan, who seems confused that the Jihad started by its Mujahideens was a holy-war but the truth is that it was plain terrorism all along the way, no holy war can justify killing of the innocent people.
Pakistani PM Imran Khan: In 80s we were training these Mujahideen people to do jihad against Soviet when they occupied Afghanistan. So,these people were trained by Pakistan, funded by US's CIA & now a decade later when the Americans come into Afghanistan… (File pic) (1/3) pic.twitter.com/34MQNcnA3X
— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2019
Ahead of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in October in which by indications Pakistan is all set to be blacklisted after being greylisted in 2018, these statements seem to be the face-saving grace that the naïve PM of Pakistan is seen to be employing. Painting itself as the victim is not going to help its cause. It seems like Imran Khan has finally come to the terms that it was Pakistan’s own home-grown terrorists who went out to destroy Afghanistan but later came back and turned against their own country and spread the dangerous seed of terrorism which more than any other country has hurt them the most. Listing out the consequences of Pakistan not being neutral in its position when the American troops entered Afghanistan, Imran Khan said that the country has since lost 70,000 people and over 100 billion dollars to the economy.
US Marines have been fighting the war against the Taliban for the last 2 decades and when recently US President Donald Trump announced that the US would be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, it created a strange uneasiness in the region. He also canceled peace talks with Taliban after the September 5 attack in Kabul that resulted in the death of a US soldier and 11 other people which in turn was a blessing in disguise for Trump and India both because it meant that India’s stance of not engaging with non-state political actors like Taliban was unequivocally iterated (India refuses to recognise Taliban as a state player). Giving them the status of equals would have only deteriorated the power balance in Afghanistan but might have also created civil unrest as the democracy seems to be blooming there with the elections to be held very soon.
Meanwhile, USA which acts as if it is the messiah in the region and international conflicts has to stop acting as a double-faced agent, it created a problem in the region which should not have existed in the first place but because of its extensive funding as narrated by Imran himself, it not only grew but it became a threatening menace that ultimately US had to call its troops and spend billions of dollars whilst sacrificing its thousands of soldiers. Pakistan which is battling an economy that is at the cusp of bankruptcy and virtual breakdown, it would be a miracle if Imran Khan could steer his country in any right direction but given his recent statements and petty behaviour on the abrogation of article 370, he is treading on the path of his previous Pakistani PM’s who were a mere puppet of the Pakistani Army and it seems like Imran is no different.