'Not a secret': After Asif, Bilawal Bhutto opens up on Pakistan's 'dirty' past of backing terror groups

Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari (File)

Former Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto has said that his country's support to terror groups “is not a secret”, echoing recent remarks by defence minister Khawaja Asif that Islamabad has been doing this "dirty work" for the West for decades.

In an interview to Sky News, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader said that Pakistan has suffered the consequences of supporting terrorist organisations and has "learned its lessons".

"As far as what the defence minister said, I don't think it is a secret that Pakistan has a past... As a result, we have suffered, Pakistan has suffered. We have gone through wave after wave of extremism. But as a result of what we suffered, we also learned our lessons. We have gone through internal reforms to address this problem not only for us but ... also the international community," Bhutto said, when asked about Asif's recent admission.

On a question about terrorism claiming his own mother's (Benazir Bhutto) life, Bilawal said: "As far as Pakistan's history is concerned, it is history and it is not something that we are partaking in today. It is true that it is an unfortunate part of our history. We are not alone in this history."

He claimed that Pakistan took "serious and successful" action against terror groups after the assassination of his mother.

Bhutto remarks follow Khawaja Asif's admission that Pakistan has supported and funded terrorist organisations for over three decades at the behest of US and its allies.

Asif, like Bhutto, claimed that Pakistan suffered due to its "dirty work".

"We have been doing this dirty work for the United States for about three decades... and the West, including Britain...That was a mistake, and we suffered for that, and that is why you are saying this to me. If we had not joined the war against the Soviet Union and later on the war after 9/11, Pakistan's track record was unimpeachable," Asif told Sky News in an interview amid rising tensions with India following the deadly attack in J&K's Pahalgam.

The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan's support to terror organisations has long been an open secret, with India voicing its concerns about the same at various global platforms.

From India to Afghanistan, Russia to Iran, and even the United Kingdom, Pakistan’s fingerprints are visible in terror attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives and destabilised regions.