By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has disclosed that Pakistan was offered to exchange self-confessed Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav with a terrorist involved in the 2014 attack on Army Public School in Peshawar.
On being asked if India is using its presence in Afghanistan to undermine Pakistan’s stability, the minister replied in the affirmative. “Whatever economic development India has achieved in Afghanistan, it is on our [Pakistan] border. India has several [four] consulates on our border and most of the investments they are doing is in the Pashtun area, along our border.” Muhammad Asif said in an interview with Asia Society.
The minister said that the Afghan government has admitted that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has safe havens on Afghan soil and operates from there. The terrorist who killed children in APS in Peshawar, is in Afghan custody.”
“The [Afghan] national security adviser told me we can exchange him for the terrorist you have, which is Kulbhushan Jadhav,” the foreign minister added.
During the sitting held in conjunction with the 72nd UN General Assembly session in New York, Asif asked the international community, the US in particular, to stop blaming Pakistan for the existence of the Haqqani Network and other alleged militant outfits, reminding them that those ‘terrorists’ were considered the ‘darlings’ of the White House up until a few decades ago.
“These were the people who were your darlings just 20 to 30 years back. They were being dined and wined in the White House and now you say ‘go to hell Pakistanis because you are nurturing these people’,” he added.
