Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan hit back at the United States President Donald Trump for his recent tirade against Pakistan for not doing ‘a damn thing’ for America in order to prevent terrorist activities and supporting Washington-led ‘war on terror’.
Khan sharply reacted saying that instead of making a Pakistan a “scapegoat” for its failures in Afghanistan, Trump should find out why the Taliban has emerged stronger than before.
Listing out ways in which Pakistan assisted the US and was impacted by the war, Khan said that “record needs to be put straight on Mr Trump’s tirade against Pakistan”.
Cricketer turned politician’s tweet came after Trump defended his administration’s decision to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan for not making adequate efforts to curb terrorism and criticised Islamabad for offering a hideout to Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad.
“Instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 140,000 Nato troops, plus 250,000 Afghan troops and reportedly USD 1 trillion spent on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before,” Khan suggested.
Khan also highlighted how the war devastated Pakistan’s tribal areas and uprooted millions of Pakistanis from their homes. He said that the country continues to provide free lines of ground and air communications to the US.
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In an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, Trump said Pakistan “don’t do a damn thing” for the US, and once again blamed the Islamic country for allegedly sheltering Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
“He was living in Pakistan, we’re supporting Pakistan, we’re giving them $1.3bn a year, which we don’t give them any more. By the way, I ended it because they don’t do anything for us, they don’t do a damn thing for us,” Trump added.
The ties between the two countries strained after Trump, while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in August last year, lashing out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to “agents of chaos” that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has “much to lose” by harbouring terrorists.
In September this year, the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad for not doing enough against terror groups like the Haqqani Network and Taliban active on its soil.
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