ISLAMABAD: Former foreign minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari 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 fol-lowing Benazir’s assassination, and the next government conducted another operation in North Wazir-istan. “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.”
He added that the international community was very well aware and endorsed Pakistan’s actions against said terrorist groups.
Bilawal added that the FATF is a very rigorous process that has a complete monitoring mechanism, so it’s not like you can hide from it.
Slamming the Indian allegations, Bilawal said that immediately after the Pahalgam attack, Prime Minis-ter Shehbaz Sharif publicly stated that Islamabad is “willing to be part of any impartial international in-quiry into the incident, our hands are clean.”
“We had that sort of confidence. It was the Indian government that rebuffed that offer. To this day, the Indian government has not shared with Pakistan or the international community.”
Pakistan and India engaged in a military confrontation in May, triggered by April’s Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack.
Bilawal had also led a parliamentary delegation that visited global capitals on a mission to debunk the Indian propaganda in the aftermath of the recent conflict between the two countries.
The nuclear-armed rivals used missiles, drones, and artillery fire during the four-day fighting —their worst in decades — before agreeing to a ceasefire.
In response to the Indian aggression, Pakistan’s armed forces launched a large-scale retaliatory military action, named “Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos”, and targeted several Indian military targets across multiple regions.
The ceasefire was first announced by US President Donald Trump on social media after Washington held talks with both sides, but India has differed with Trump’s claims that it resulted from his interven-tion and threats to sever trade talks.
However, Pakistan has acknowledged Trump’s efforts and formally recommended him for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, citing his role in defusing tensions between Pakistan and India last month. –Agencies
