Imran Khan regrets Pak role in Afghan war, says ‘in the end we were blamed’

Pakistan should have taken a neutral stance instead of backing America’s campaign against the Soviet rule in Afghanistan, said Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday. This comes days ahead of his trip to the US and his address to the UNGA. “I strongly felt Pakistan should have been neutral because joining these groups turned against us,” Khan told Russia Today, an international television network. American Marines have been fighting the war against Taliban in Afghanistan for the past two decades. “We lost 70,000 people. We lost over a hundred billion dollars to the economy. And in the end we were blamed for the Americans not succeeding in Afghanistan. I felt it was very unfair on Pakistan,” Khan added. The Pakistan Prime Minister further admitted that the terror groups, which were born on the Pakistani soil and funded by America to carry out ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan, have now turned against Pakistan. Khan added taking part in America’s war against terrorism has lead to a loss of its own people as well as created a crisis in the economy, the effect of which can be felt now as the cash-strapped nation has requested numerous countries and global money lenders for bailout packages to support its plunging credit line. Khan’s comments come days ahead of his US visit where he will meet President Donald Trump twice and will also address the UN General Assembly (UNGA) later this month. Earlier, during his maiden visit to the United States in July, Khan had made a similar revelation that his country still has about 30,000 to 40,000 militants “who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir.” Khan had also said that before his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government came into power, the governments did not have the “political will” to disarm militant groups operating on their soil. Source: Hindustan Times