Imran Khan: Pakistan kept truth from US

Imran Khan

Washington: Prime Minister Imran Khan has admitted that about 30,000-40,000 "armed people", who were trained and fought in Afghanistan or Kashmir, were in Pakistan and accused previous governments of not telling the truth to the US about militant groups operating in the country.

India and Afghanistan accuse Pakistan of providing a safe haven to Afghan Taliban, Haqqani network, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba etc.

Khan also said that successive governments in Pakistan did not tell the truth to the United States, in particular in the last 15 years, that there were 40 different militant groups operating in his country. "Until we came into power, the governments did not have the political will, because when you talk about militant groups, we still have about 30,000-40,000 armed people who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir," Khan said at the US Institute of Peace on Tuesday.

"We were fighting the US war on terror. Pakistan has nothing to do with 9/11 (attack). Al-Qaeda was in Afghanistan. There were no militant Taliban in Pakistan. But we joined the US war. Unfortunately, when things went wrong, where I blame my government, we did not tell the US exactly the truth on the ground," Khan said later.

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