At last, Pakistan has confirmed the allegation repeatedly made by India for a long time. On April 25, 2025, Defence Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Muhammad Asif admitted that his country has been sponsoring terrorism for three decades. However, he blamed the US and the Western World for forcing Pakistan to do the “dirty work“!

Talking to British media outlet Sky News a couple of days ago, Asif stressed: “We have been doing this dirty work for the US for the past three decades, including the West and the United Kingdom.” He also said that Pakistan suffered a lot because of that mistake.

Incidentally, the Cold War began between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union in the post-Second World War bipolar world. Even when the US forces effectively occupied Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in September 2001, Pakistan backed the US. Referring to that context, the Pakistani minister stated that the US used (Pakistani) terrorists as shields against the Soviets in Afghanistan, adding that his country’s “track record would have been unimpeachable had Islamabad not joined the West during the Soviet-Afghan War and the US-led war against the Taliban after 9/11“.

Asif defended Pakistan’s decision to support the US in the Soviet-Afghan War by training and harbouring armed terrorists to fight the Soviets, stating: “The proxy war between the US and the Soviet gave Pakistan an important role because of its porous border with Afghanistan.“

Meanwhile, the Pakistani defence minister blamed India for trying to trigger a crisis in Pakistan (and also in the entire region) after the April 22 (2025) Pahalgam terror attack (in India-administered Kashmir) that claimed 26 innocent lives. Responding to a question about whether Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was behind the terror attack in Pahalgam, he stressed: “Lashkar is an old name. It does not exist… Our government has condemned it (Pahalgam attack) categorically. Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism for decades.“

Although The Resistance Front (TRF), a little-known proxy organisation of Pakistan-based LeT that emerged in the region in 2019, claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack, the Pakistani minister claimed that he had never heard of TRF, saying: “If the parent organisation does not exist, how can the offshoot take birth?“

After the April 22 terror attack, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that New Delhi would “identify, trace and punish” every terrorist and their backers involved in the Pahalgam massacre. In response, Asif said: “If there is an all-out attack or something like that, then obviously there will be an all-out war… The clash between two nuclear powers is always worrisome.“

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Facebook

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Twitter

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Linkedin

Contact us: kousdas@gmail.com

Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das