Pakistan Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif says his country no longer has any influence over Taliban. The insurgents are currently being sponsored and controlled by others, he claims.
He confirmed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who met Pakistan's military and civilian officials on Oct. 23, had handed them a list of 75 terrorists.
Briefing the Senate on Tillerson's trip, the minister said, “The U.S. has given us a list of 75 terrorists. Pakistan is not America’s colony that would do whatever they want.”
The Haqqani Network was top of the list but Hafiz Saeed's name was not mentioned, the minister said. Saeed, a Pakistani militant leader, was allegedly involved in terrorist attacks in India.
New Delhi claims in 2008, under the leadership of Saeed, Lashkar-i-Taiba’s bloody attacks in India left dozens of people dead and wounded.
Asif told the Senate the U.S. had accepted Pakistan’s demands after the attack on the World Trade Center. “The U.S. would give us lists of terrorist and we would sell them.”
Former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zayef has written in his book that Pakistan would sell Taliban and other militants to the U.S. for the sake of dollars.
According to Asif, they have informed the U.S. that Pakistan has no influence on Taliban anymore, “We had influence over them in the past but now they are being sponsored by others.”
He said Afghan Taliban’s leaders were also included in the list, and some of the people on it were dead. Earlier Pakistan and Afghanistan had also exchanged such lists.
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This article has been adapted from its original source.
