Hafiz, Haqqani were your darlings: Pakistan to US
NEW YORK: Pakistan’s foreign minister has acknowledged that Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, the Haqqanis and the LeT are “liabilities” for the country but it does not have the required “assets” to get rid of them. Khawaja Asif said the US, putting pressure on Pakistan to tackle terrorist groups, once used to treat them as “darlings” 20 to 30 years back. US President Donald Trump had last month criticised Pakistan for support to terror groups, saying it gets billions in aid but continues to harbour militants.
NEW YORK : Pakistan has told the US that it can’t be blamed for terrorists like Hafiz Saeed, who masterminded the Mumbai terror attack, saying Washington considered such people as “darlings” until only a few years ago.
Mincing no words at the Asia Society forum here on Tuesday evening, Pakistan foreign minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said it was very easy to say that Islamabad was floating the Haqqani network as well as Hafiz Saeed and the militant organisation he co-founded in 1987, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
“I accept, they are liabilities but give us time to get rid of these liabilities because we don’t have assets to match these liabilities and you are increasing them (our liabilities) further,” the Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Asif as saying
Asif, who is attending the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, added: “Don’t blame us for Haqqanis or don’t blame us for the Hafiz Saeeds. These were the 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.”
Saeed is accused by India of masterminding the Mumbai carnage of November 2008 that left 166, including foreigners, dead.
Asif said Pakistan was ready to work with the US for effective management of the Afghan border to stop terrorist infiltration and to facilitate a peace settlement in Afghanistan.
He underlined that there was no military solution to the dragging conflict in Afghanistan. “Scapegoating Pakistan for all the Afghan ills is neither fair nor accurate... This will only help forces that we are trying to fight collectively.”
Pakistan, he said, had done all it could to facilitate a political settlement in Afghanistan, making sure that Pakistani soil was not used against any country.
He made it clear there were limits to what Pakistan could do vis-a-vis Afghanistan. “We cannot take responsibility for Afghanistan’s peace and security and be asked to achieve what the combined strength of some of the most powerful and richest countries could not accomplish,” he told the audience.
HAFIZ’S DETENTION EXTENDED BY A MONTH
A Pakistani court has extended by a month the detention of Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. On Tuesday, the Lahore high court directed Saeed’s counsel to file a fresh application against the latest order of the Punjab home department extending his detention by another 30 days starting from Monday, the Dawn nespaper reported on Wednesday.