Pakistan points finger at US for rise of jihad in South Asia

The Pakistan Foreign minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the current jihadis in his country were all nurtured by America during the war against the Soviets. “Don’t blame us for the Haqqanis or the Hafiz Saeeds. These were people who were your darlings just 20 to 30 years back. They were being dined and wined in the White House and now you say go to hell Pakistanis because you are nurturing these people.”

Jihadis nurtured by US during Soviet war

He also laid the blame for Pakistan’s difficult situation to the US’s plan of using and then discarding Pakistan in its proxy war against the Soviet Union: “You cannot divorce history just to move forward. They [the militants] are a liability and it will take time for Pakistan to work its way through that.” “Saeed, LeT, they are a liability, I accept it, but give us time to get rid of them, we don’t have the assets to deal with these liabilities.

Speaking in New York, the minister said some statements made by the US President Donald Trump were “blatant lies.” –“No billions of dollars have been dished out to us,” he said. “It was money which was reimbursed for the services we rendered to the USA and its allies,” he said, referring to the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) that America gives to Pakistan for the Afghan war.

Pakistan a liberal country before the US intervention

“Sunnis, Shias, Christians, Hindus… all could live together. They were all Pakistanis. Now people change their names ..(to protect their identity) This is a tragedy…Please don’t blame us for the tragedy that we are in…Share this agony and anguish with us,” the Minister said.

He also said that the targeting of Minorities in India will only add to the instability in the region.