Criticizing the US President Donald Trump's anti-Pakistan tweet, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that no one has the right to label Pakistan a lair when it has made sizable sacrifices in war against terror. Iqbal said this while addressing an anti-riot police passing-out ceremony held here at Police Lines on Wednesday.
"The United States instead of scoffing Pakistan should appreciate the role of Pakistan in the war against terror," he said. He said that no country in the world had rendered sacrifices more than Pakistan in the fight against terrorism; therefore, international community should acknowledge those sacrifices.
Trump in his tweet on Monday last claimed, "The US has foolishly given Pakistan over $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" The interior minister said that Pakistan had rendered exemplary sacrifices for protection of the region from terrorism; therefore, the US should praise the Pakistan's role. "If Pakistan had not launched different operations including Zarb-e-Azb and Radd ul Fasad against terrorists, the terrorist groups in Afghanistan would have posed a threat to the entire region, he added.
He further said that Pakistan was collecting the thorns spread by the US in the region. "I want to remind the US that these thorns are your inventions," said Iqbal, adding, "As soon as the war against the Soviet Union ended, you withdrew and went home without thinking what your radicalizing of Afghanistan to create an anti-Soviet narrative would lead to as well as left huge file of weapons and terrorists. The seeds of the extremist views you used to win that war had bred terrorism and extremism and Pakistani nation still paying for it." The minister said Pakistan had received different problems including terrorism, drugs and different others problems as a result of supporting the US.
He said that as a result of Soviet Afghan war, 3.5 million Afghan refugees came to Pakistan, while the US did not allow a single Syrian refugee to America. The minister also asked President Trump not to let the US get manipulated by India and if the US wants peace in Afghanistan then it should see from its own perspective, instead of Indian perspective.
He said the police everywhere were playing a key role in ensuring law and order." The provision of modern equipment and training to police is mandatory for betterment of the society," he added. He said that security forces had broken the backbone of terrorists, adding, "it is our responsibility not to compromise on the conspiracies hatched for weakening of country."