Hafiz Saeed, LeT are liabilities for country: Pakistan
It is very easy to say Pakistan is floating the Haqqanis and Hafiz Saeed and LeT. They are liabilities, Asif said.
New York: Pakistan’s foreign minister has acknowledged that Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, the Haqqanis and the LeT are “liabilities” for the country but it does not have the required “assets” to get rid of them.
Mr Khawaja Asif said that the US, which is putting pressure on Pakistan to tackle terrorist groups operating from its soil, once used to treat them as “darlings” just 20 to 30 years back.
US President Donald Trump had criticised Pakistan for its support to terror groups. “Don’t blame us for the Haqqanis (the Haqqani terror network) and don’t blame us for the Hafiz Saeeds (chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa terror group),” Mr Asif said at the Asia Society forum here on Tuesday.
Ready to work with US on terror: Pakistan
“These were the people who were your darlings just 20 to 30 years back. They were being dined and wined in the White House and now you say ‘go to hell Pakistanis because you are nurturing these people’,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run AP of Pakistan.
It is very easy to say Pakistan is floating the Haqqanis and Hafiz Saeed and LeT. They are liabilities, Mr Asif said.
“I accept that they are liabilities, but give us time to get rid of them because we don’t have the assets to match these liabilities and you are increasing them further," the minister said.
Pakistan is ready to work with the US for effective management of the Afghan border to stop terrorist infiltration and to facilitate a peace settlement in Afghanistan, he said.