The cricketer-turned-politician and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has now said that Pulwama terror attack that got 40 CRPF personnel killed, was an “indigenous thing” that took place in Kashmir.
During his US trip, Imran Khan echoed that since Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terror group based in Pakistan, claimed full responsibility, the country came to light. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the whole Pakistan is blamed for the attack.
Imran Khan’s validation is that although Jaish is based in Pakistan, it also has presence in Kashmir and therefore the attack is an “indigenous incident” that happened in India.
“A Kashmiri boy was radicalised after the brutalities of the Indian security forces and he carried out the attack, but suddenly Pakistan came into the limelight,” said Imran Khan.
As many as 40 CRPF personnel died on February 14 when a CRPF convoy was assaulted by a Jaish terrorist who rammed an IED-laden vehicle into one of the trucks.
Jaish-e-Mohammed had later released a video of the terrorist who launched an attack on the convoy and also claimed responsibility for the brutal attack that disturbed the moods of entire India.
The terrifying terror attack again caused massive damage to Indo-Pak relations. 12 days after the attack, India performed decisive airstrikes deep inside Pakistan’s Balakot area only to eliminate all terror hubs of Jaish-e-Mohammed.
The airstrikes further added fuel to the fire along the border and days later India and Pakistan were involved in an aerial dogfight.
While India added that Pakistan tried to attack the Indian Air Force (IAF) setups with their fighter jets, Pakistan denied any such incident.
US, on the contrary, earlier said that while Pakistan has taken some steps against terror groups across the nation, they are very much “reversible”.
However, after his meeting with the US President, Imran Khan confessed that successive governments in Pakistan did not tell the exact truth to the United States, in particular in the last 15 years. Imran Khan disclosed that there were 40 different militant groups operating in his country itself.
When asked about Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s 7th arrest that came right ahead of his US visit, Imran Khan said “we do not allow any armed militant groups to operate” in our country.