Former Afghan spymaster Rahmatullah Nabil blamed Pakistan for orchestrating terrorism in Afghanistan for the past four decades. He said that Pakistan keeps supporting the Taliban in their endeavours as innocent Afghan civilians are plunged into a terrible bloodbath.
Taking to the social media, Nabil, the former head of Afghanistan’s national intelligence agency National Directorate of Security, said that Pakistan should be declared a terrorist state for its nefarious manoeuvres in Afghanistan. Pakistan harboured Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden – the most wanted criminal in the world at the time – for several years. What could be more credible evidence of Islamabad’s terrorism? Nabil asked.
He said that despite all the “terrorist policies” directed towards Afghanistan, the Pakistani leaders are still blaming Afghanistan for the ongoing conflict. He said that Afghanistan is capable enough to give Pakistan a taste of its own medicine. But we don’t intend to inflict suffering on the innocent Pakistani civilians, so we have refrained from any retaliatory measures, he said.
Nabil said that the Pakistani civilians now understand the barbarity of the Pakistani intelligence agencies and the military, which is why one can frequently hear those chanting slogans against the military overlords on the streets.
Pakistan has been frequently criticized for funding terrorism in Afghanistan and neighbouring Kashmir. Islamabad – ostensibly an ally to America in its war on terrorism – had been chastised for harbouring a soft spot for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. During the challenging years in Afghanistan in the first few years of the 21st century, several Taliban key leaders fled to the northern areas of Pakistan and to Balochistan, where they were warmly welcomed. Even the Al Qaeda chief found a safe sanctuary in Pakistan, where was eventually hunted down and killed in 2011.
US Presidents like Barack Obama and Donald Trump called on Pakistan for its duplicity in the Afghan war and for providing safe havens for the Taliban in the country. Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State during the first tenure of Obama, once compared Pakistan to a snake, saying: “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and only expect them to bite your neighbours.”