Daily Times

LAHORE: Lashing out at US president Donald Trump, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday reminded Trump that the radicalisation of Afghanistan began at US’ behest.

Speaking at the Police Lines in Islamabad, the interior minister said: “The US president’s recent remarks are akin to belittling our sacrifices. We are a dignified nation and no one has the right to attack our dignity.”

“I want to remind the US that these thorns are your inventions,” said Iqbal. “As soon as the war against the Soviets ended, you withdrew and went home without thinking what your radicalising of Afghanistan to create an anti-Soviet narrative would lead to. The seeds of the extremist views you used to win that war weren’t going to suddenly start producing computer chips: they were going to breed terrorism and extremism.”

“The Pakistani nation is still paying for those seeds that you planted,” he said. He also said that no one has the right to label Pakistan a ‘liar’ as it has contributed enormously to the war on terror

The interior minister further said that the US did nothing for the 3.5 million Afghan refugees Pakistan allowed into its territory during the Soviet-Afghan war.

“Not one Syrian refugee is given entry into the US but we allowed 3.5m Afghan refugees who had come to Pakistan to fight your war against the Soviets; what did you ever do for them?” he questioned.

“We are playing an integral role at both international and regional levels to maintain international peace,” he said. “We have battled forces that are headquartered in Afghanistan. We have sacrificed our troops in [Operation] Raddul Fasad to rid this region of this menace.”

Advising Trump, Iqbal said that US administration should not let itself get manipulated by India, saying: “If President Trump and company want peace in Afghanistan, they should see it from their own perspective and not India’s.”