Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday admitted that the country trained terrorists with funds from the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“In 80s, we were training these Mujahideen people to do jihad against Soviet when they occupied Afghanistan. So, these people were trained by Pakistan, funded by United States' CIA and now a decade later when the Americans come into Afghanistan,” Khan said in an interview to Russia Today.
Khan further added that Pakistan should have remained neutral at the time because now the terror groups have turned against them.
“The same groups who are all in Pakistan are supposed to say that now because Americans are there it is no longer jihad, it is terrorism. It was a big contradiction and I strongly felt that Pakistan should have been neutral because by joining in, these groups turned against us,” he said.
Pakistan lost over 70,000 people and $100 billion after joining United States' War on Terror in Afghanistan, Khan said. Despite all the losses, Washington still blames on Pakistan for its own setbacks in Afghanistan, he added.
“We lost 70,000 people, we lost over a 100 billion dollars to the economy. In the end, we were blamed for the Americans not succeeding in Afghanistan. I felt it was very unfair on Pakistan,” Khan said in an interview to RT.
“The same groups who are all in Pakistan are supposed to say that now because Americans are there it is no longer jihad, it is terrorism. It was a big contradiction and I strongly felt that Pakistan should have been neutral because by joining in, these groups turned against us,” he said.
Khan's comments come after US President Donald Trump called off peace talks with the Taliban and canceled a "secret meeting" with the group`s representatives even. US and Taliban representatives were working towards a peace deal and held nine rounds of talks.
The Trump administration has repeatedly asked Pakistan to act against terrorism on home soil.