Uproar in Pakistan after their PM admits its Army and ISI had trained Al Qaeda terrorists prior to 9/11 attack in the U.S.
In a major development, the Prime Minister of Pakistan – Imran Khan has admitted that Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had trained the terrorists of Al Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for executing the 9/11 attack in the United states (U.S.)
He made the confession while speaking at the U.S. think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He also said that the Government did change its policy with regards to such groups post the 9/11 attack, but the Pakistan Army was reluctant to that change.
This is the 2nd big confession by Imran Khan. Prior to this, in July 2019, he had admitted that Pakistan knew that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan. At the time, he had also said that it was ISI who informed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a civilian foreign intelligence service of the Federal Government of the U.S., about Osama Bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, which helped U.S. in tracking down the one of the most wanted global terrorist. It is to be noted that Laden was killed by the U.S. on May 2, 2011.
Answering a question on why Pakistan didn’t investigate the matter regarding the presence of Al Qaeda Chief – Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Imran Khan said, “We had an investigation. But I will say, the Pakistan Army, ISI trained al Qaeda before 9/11, so there were always going to be links. Many in the Army didn’t agree with the policy change post 9/11.”
As per Imran Khan, Pakistan committed one of the biggest blunders by siding with the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He believes the previous Governments “should not have pledged what they could not deliver.”
Imran Khan said that Pakistan should have remained neutral as the country’s ISI had previously trained militant groups to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Speaking about training terrorists, he said, “In the 1980s, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Pakistan, helped by the US, organised the resistance to the Soviets. The ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) trained militants who were invited from all over the Muslim world to do jihad against the Soviets.”
“And so we created these militant groups to fight the Soviets…Jihadis were heroes then. Come 1989, Soviets leave Afghanistan, the US packs up and leaves Afghanistan…and we were left with these groups,” added Imran Khan.
Trouble started when Pakistan sided with U.S. after 9/11 and was supposed to counter the terror groups whom they had trained earlier. “Then comes 9/11, and Pakistan again joins the US in the war on terror and now we are required to go after these groups as terrorists. They were indoctrinated that fighting foreign occupation is jihad but now when the U.S. arrived in Afghanistan, it was supposed to be terrorism,” Imran Khan added.
He also clarified that when Pakistan started supporting U.S. in their hunt for Laden, the Pakistan army didn’t support the Government. This resulted into insider attacks in Pakistan. Even the Former President of Pakistan – Pervez Musharraf survived 2 attacks which were planned by within the Army.
For the records, Imran Khan is on a week-long visit to the U.S. and would be addressing the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, 2019, the day when the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi is also set to address the august gathering.
