Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s national security adviser has faced criticism within his country for claiming that India was linked to the 2014 terrorist assault on an army school in Peshawar, an attack the Taliban claimed responsibility for. The responsability.
Moeed Yusuf, Khan’s special assistant on national security and strategic policy planning, made the claim during an interview with journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire news portal. It alleged that the mastermind behind the Jalalabad raid in Afghanistan was in contact with “manipulators” at the Indian consulate in the same city where the attack was taking place.
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Yusuf also alleged that Indian intelligence had spent $ 1 million to merge Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with four other militant groups and that India was funneling money to Baloch activists through think tanks in Afghanistan. However, it did not offer evidence to back up these claims.
Yusuf claimed in a tweet that he had “exposed previously undisclosed information about the regular sponsorship of terrorism by the Indian state against Pakistan.”
There was no response from Indian officials to Yusuf’s comments.
The Pakistani aide to the prime minister received praise for the interview, but there was considerable criticism for his comments relating to the 2014 attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar, which resulted in the deaths of 149 people, including more than 130 children, and the former government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was forced to draw up a National Action Plan to combat terrorist groups.
TTP, whose leader Mullah Fazlullah said was in retaliation for Pakistan’s military operations in North Waziristan, claimed responsibility. Fazlullah, who was killed in a US drone attack in Afghanistan in 2018, had said in a video message at the time: “We selected the army school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and women … we want them to feel the same pain. ”
Former Senator Farhatullah Babar, a senior leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), tweeted that Yusuf “to say that the brain of APS was in contact with an Indian consulate during the attack is a high claim.”
“The proof must be presented to the world and the Pakistani people. [Yusuf] it should not be seen repeating intel narrative without evidence. The credibility of @YusufMoeed is at stake, ”added Babar.
Civil society activist Marvi Sirmed, in a tweet, noted that Yusuf had said he has undeniable strong evidence about the attack on the school, including “verified tapes of 8 phone calls”, and asked “why this was hidden from the people from Pakistan for so long? ”
Several users of social media in Peshawar, where the attack on the school remains an emotional problem, criticized the claim that India was somehow linked to the terrorist incident.
They noted that the authorities had told them for years that the Taliban and a former spokesperson for the group, Ehsanullah Ehsan, were behind the attack on the school. They also noted that several local militants were sentenced to death by military courts for the attack.
In August 2015, then-Pakistan Army Chief Raheel Sharif confirmed the death sentence handed down by the military courts to seven members of the TTP and the Toheed-wal-Jihad group for supporting and raising funds for the attack on the school. . In February 2015, the media arm of the Pakistan Army announced the arrest of TTP member Taj Mohammad, whom it described as one of the “main executors” of the attack on the school.
The convicted attackers were subsequently hanged in November 2015 and April 2017.
Yusuf had also claimed in the interview that India had sent messages “wanting to talk” but declined to give details. It also set the conditions for a dialogue with India, including the release of political prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir, making the people of Kashmir part of the talks, and ending restrictions in the region. Indian officials have also not responded to these comments.
People familiar with the events in Islamabad said that Yusuf’s decision to do an interview with an Indian media outlet came after approval by the Pakistani military.
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