Pakistan paid "Very Heavy Price" for Siding with US In Afghanistan: Imran Khan
US lawmakers accused Pakistan of facilitating Taliban..
21-Sep-2021
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Pakistan paid a "very heavy price" of siding with US in its occupation of Afghanistan, said PM Imran Khan. He said, listening to American politicians blame Islamabad for its humiliating retreat, hurts. In an interview, Khan expressed anger towards American officials who pointed fingers at Islamabad when blaming for US failure in Afghanistan. He said this after the recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings as an example where US lawmakers accused Pakistan of facilitating Taliban. He said, "As a Pakistani, I felt deeply hurt by some of the remarks made by those senators. To blame Pakistan for this debacle in Afghanistan is the most painful thing for us to listen to." Pakistan was in a fearful situation when 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred in US. Pervez Musharraf, a general who came to power through a military coup, had been elected president and was seeking US assistance for his government.
Promising Pakistani support to invasion of Afghanistan helped secure American military help, but Khan believes, was still a wrong call. It separated mujahideen forces, which Pakistani intelligence helped build up just 2 decades ago as part of US anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan. He said, "We have trained them to fight against foreign occupation. It was a holy war, a jihad."