'We've been doing this dirty work for...': Pak defence min admits to funding, training terrorists

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif stirred headlines after he claimed that Pakistan is doing “dirty work” for the West when asked about the accusation that the country is supporting a terrorist organisation. The surprising admission from Asif came during his heated interview with Sky News.

In the interview, Asif slammed New Delhi for imposing security measures against Pakistan following the devastating Pahalgam attack. On April 22, terrorists infiltrated the tourist destination in Kashmir, killing 26 innocent tourists.

While Asif attempted to dodge questions about Pakistan’s long history of fostering terrorism, the Pakistani defence minister dug himself a hole when he blurted out that the cash-strapped nation is doing the “dirty work” for the West. “Well, we have been doing this dirty work for the United States and West, including Britain, for 3 decades," Asif said when asked how the country supported and backed terrorist organisations in the past.

However, he quickly backtracked on his assertion, insisting that supporting such groups was a mistake. “That was a mistake, and we are suffering from that,” he added, referencing the terror attacks that broke out on its own soil.

‘Lashkar doesn’t exist’: Asif

During the Sky News interview, Asif made an unsubstantiated proclamation, claiming that Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose offshoot, the Resistance Front, claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack, “does not exist in Pakistan”.

“The reaction that came from Delhi was not surprising for us; we could make out that this whole thing was staged to create some sort of crisis in the region, particularly for us,” Asif said in response to India’s recent security measures, which included the abeyance of the Indus Water Treaty.

He went on to claim that his country had never heard of The Resistance Front. “Our government has condemned it categorically. Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism for decades. But this sort of pattern is going on in India. This time again, the people who are being accused (of attacking) are not known. Never heard of that organisation," he said.

When Sky News reminded him of the fact that the Front claimed to be an offshoot of the Lashkar, Asif falsely claimed that “Lashkar is a name from the past. It does not exist." After India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) introduced five security measures against Pakistan, Islamabad hit back by introducing countermeasures, including the suspension of all bilateral agreement with India, including the 1972 Simla Agreement.