Says Pakistan offered impartial inquiry but India rejected
Former foreign minister and Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday rejected India’s claims of patronising terrorist groups to conduct attacks outside of Pakistan.
In an interview with Indian journalist Karan Thapar, Bilawal said: “Pakistan does not willingly permit […] the groups you mentioned or any group to conduct terrorist attacks outside of Pakistan but also within Pakistan.”
Highlighting the country’s losses during the war against terrorism, the PPP lawmaker said that the world is well aware that Pakistan faced the brunt of terrorism over the past many decades.
“Pakistan is fighting and has been fighting the largest inland war against terrorism. We’ve lost 92,000 lives altogether. Just last year, we lost more than 1,200 civilian lives in more than 200 different terrorist attacks.”
“At the rate at which terrorist attacks are taking place just this year alone, if they continue at this pace, this year will be the bloodiest year in Pakistan’s history.”
Recalling the assassination of his mother and former premier Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal said: “I too am a victim of terrorism. I feel the pain of the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. I understand the trauma that their families are experiencing in a way more than many others can ever imagine.”
He also elaborated on Pakistan’s ongoing battle to root out the menace, saying: “Pakistan went through a process where we not only took military action against terrorist groups within Pakistan.”
He said that in the previous Zardari’s tenure, Pakistan conducted an operation in South Waziristan following Benazir’s assassination, and the next government conducted another operation in North Waziristan.
“We implemented a National Action Plan as far as our actions against the groups of concern to India. Most recently, we went through a rigorous FATF [Financial Action Task Force] process.”
