Pakistan PM Imran Khan fires back after criticism from Donald Trump
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s prime minister fired back Monday after President
Donald Trump accused the country of harboring Osama bin Laden despite
getting billions of dollars in American aid.
Imran Khan tweeted that Pakistan had suffered 75,000 casualties and lost
$123 billion in the “US War on Terror,” despite the fact that no
Pakistanis were involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. He said the US has
only provided a “minuscule” $20 billion in aid.
US commandos killed bin Laden in a May 2011 raid in Abbottabad,
Pakistan, where he had been living in seclusion in a house near a
well-known military academy. Pakistan denies it knew bin Laden’s
whereabouts prior to the raid, which was carried out without its
knowledge. It later arrested Dr. Shakil Afridi, who had run a fake
vaccination campaign in Abbottabad to help the CIA confirm bin Laden’s
whereabouts.
In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Trump said “everybody in
Pakistan” knew bin Laden was there and no one said anything despite the
US providing $1.3 billion a year in aid. Trump said he had cut off the
aid “because they don’t do anything for us, they don’t do a damn thing
for us.”
The US and Afghanistan have long accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye
to Islamic extremists and of harboring leaders of the Afghan Taliban.
Pakistan denies those allegations, pointing to the heavy toll of its war
against the Pakistani Taliban, a separate militant group that carries
out attacks inside Pakistan.
Khan said Pakistan’s tribal areas along the border have been devastated
by years of war, with millions uprooted from their homes.
He also pointed to the logistical support Pakistan has provided for the
US war in Afghanistan. The main overland supply route for American
forces fighting in Afghanistan runs through Pakistan.
Khan said the US has made Pakistan a “scapegoat” for its failures in
Afghanistan, where the Taliban are stronger than at any point since the
2001 US-led invasion.
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