New Delhi: In a Sky News interview, Pakistan defence minister Khwaja Asif acknowledged his country’s decades-long role in supporting, training and funding militant groups as “dirty work” for Western powers — a policy he called a mistake that has since backfired on Pakistan.Asked whether Islamabad feared escalation following the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians, Asif said Pakistan was prepared to respond “in kind.” “We will measure our response to whatever is initiated by India,” he said, warning that an “all-out attack” could trigger “an all-out war.”Presenter Yalda Hakim confronted him on Pakistan’s record: “You do admit, sir, that Pakistan has had a long history of backing and supporting…terrorist organisations?” Asif replied, “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 from that.”He argued that Pakistan’s militant proxies were once courted by Washington during the Soviet–Afghan War and again after 9/11, and that Islamabad was “used as proxies” by major powers. On allegations that Tuesday’s attack was carried out by The Resistance Front — an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Tayabba (LeT) — he insisted, “Lashkar-e-Tayabba doesn’t exist in Pakistan anymore. It is extinct.”
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