Khawaja Asif has admitted that Islamabad has been backing terrorist groups on behalf of the US and UK

Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has called out the West - and the US in particular - for its role in security tensions in the region. Asked about his country's support for terrorism in an interview with Sky News released on Friday, Asif admitted that Islamabad has been "doing the dirty work" for the Western powers for decades.

"We have been doing this dirty work for the United States for about three decades, you know and the West, including Britain," Asif told the British broadcaster on Thursday, effectively confirming that his country has been supporting, training, and funding terrorist organizations. He added that this "was a mistake" and Pakistan has "suffered for that." 

"If we had not joined the war against the Soviet Union and the war after 9/11, Pakistan's track record would have been unimpeachable," Asif said. He was referring to the Soviet-Afghan war, during which the US covertly supported anti-communist insurgents, and the US-led 'War on Terror' that was  launched by then-President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001 attacks and which targeted the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Asif claimed the West has long used terrorist groups as proxies, noting that many now labeled as terrorists were once welcomed in Washington. 

"When we were fighting the war on their side, way back in the '80s against the Soviet Union, all these terrorists of today, they were wining and dining in Washington... They were treated like VIPs in those days," he said.

The minister suggested that groups considered terrorists in the region are not distinct entities but part of a single organization with a shared religious ideology. "They're all mixed up. They're not multiple organizations. They're just one single organization, religiously organized, and with different faces, different leadership. At times they work together, at times they fight with each other."

Asif went on to say that "no country in the world has suffered so much from terrorism as Pakistan," and accused India of following "a pattern" of blaming Pakistan for terrorist attacks on its soil.