Pakistan's Jamiat Ulema e Islam Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has launched a sharp attack on the country’s military and its handling of rising militancy, questioning how terrorists were able to enter Pakistan when even basic goods from Afghanistan could not.
Addressing a public gathering in Rawalpindi on Sunday, Rehman made the remarks amid Islamabad’s repeated claims that militants were infiltrating the country from Afghanistan. He said Pakistanis wanted to ask policy makers why successive Afghan governments, "from Zahir Shah to today’s Amarat e Islamiyah", had been unable to work with Pakistan.
'Afghan policy failing for years'
"Different people came, a communist government came, a jihadist led ruling came, the Taliban’s regime came, and so did the pro Pakistanis. Yet, before criticising, have you ever thought why my Afghan policy has been failing for the last 78 years?” Rehman asked.
Referring to official claims that terrorists were crossing over from Afghanistan, he said, “If they are coming, then stop them, eliminate them. The Afghan government has never objected to your moves.”
'How are extremists infiltrating?'
The JUI-F chief underlined what he described as a glaring contradiction, saying that “not even a single pomegranate or a melon from Afghanistan can enter Pakistan, and yet somehow, terrorists come into the country”.
Rehman also took aim at Pakistan’s broader foreign policy, calling it a complete “failure” and saying Islamabad’s diplomacy had harmed the country.
“We are fighting with India, we have tensions with Afghanistan, China is upset, and so is Iran. And in this atmosphere, they think they are fighting Pakistan’s war,” he said, adding that all that had been done was to “destroy” the country.
His remarks come in the backdrop of a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Islamabad that killed at least 31 people. More than 170 others were injured in the blast.
According to Reuters, the attacker first opened fire at the gates of the mosque and then detonated the suicide bomb after guards challenged him as he tried to enter the Khadija Tul Kubra Imambargah compound.
