Pakistan made a 'scapegoat' in terror war

Describing terrorism that has devastated Pakistan as the ‘single biggest challenge we face as a nation’, he said that when terrorists hit the twin towers in New York in 2001 it was not an attack on the US alone. ‘It was an attack against all civilised societies. Terrorism poses a threat to all of us. It demands a response from all of us’, he added.

He said it would be helpful if one could understand the genesis of the genie Pakistan was grappling with.

‘We inherited the terrorism issue in the wake of the war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan’, he said.

‘Unfortunately while we won the war, we lost the peace. The spectacle of the Berlin Wall being breached and Soviet satellites gaining freedom in Europe claimed US attention and just when Afghanistan and Pakistan needed US and international support the most, it found itself abandoned’, he said.

In his speech, Qureshi gave background to the the grave situation now prevailing along the Pak-Afghan border that basically stemmed from the 1979 Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, with the US and Pakistan backing the resistance fighters which ultimately drove out the Red Army.

Washington’s abandonment of the fighters eventually led to the emergence of the Taliban, who are now aggressively pursuing their ideology in the region.

‘Pakistan is a victim of terrorism’, he said.

‘I must therefore confess to a degree of bewilderment that Pakistan is seen more as a problem in some US circles than as a partner in this defining struggle of our times’.

He said Pak govt forces have been fighting militants in the remote and rugged border areas since 2004 and suffered hundreds of casualties.