Pakistan Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday took a dig at his own country’s military and its handling of growing militancy issues, saying not a single pomegranate from Afghanistan can enter Islamabad, and yet, terrorists are entering the country.
The JUI-F chief said authorities say terrorists come to Pakistan from Afghanistan. “If they are coming, stop them, eliminate them.” (X/@Open_Source3w)Rehman made the remarks while addressing a rally in Rawalpindi amid Pakistan’s repeated claims that militants were entering the country from Afghanistan.
He said, the citizens of Pakistan want to know the country’s policy makers, starting from Zaheer Shah to today’s Amrat-e-Islamia, why can’t anyone work with Pakistan?
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“Different people came, a communist government came, a Jihadi-led regime came, Taliban rule came and pro-Pakistan came too. Yet, before criticizing, have you ever wondered why my Afghan policy is failing for the last 78 years?” Rehman asked.
He said, authorities say terrorists come to Pakistan from Afghanistan. Rehman added, “If they are coming, stop them, eliminate them. The Afghan government has never objected to your actions.”
The JUI-F chief asserted that the strange thing here is that “not even a pomegranate or a watermelon from Afghanistan can enter Pakistan, and yet, somehow, terrorists come into the country”.
Rehman criticized Pakistan’s broader foreign policy, describing it as a complete “failure”. He said Islamabad’s diplomacy has proved disastrous for the country.
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“We are at war with India, we have tensions with Afghanistan, China is upset, and so is Iran. And in this environment, they think they are fighting Pakistan’s war,” Rehman said, adding that what they have done has “destroyed” the country.
A suicide bomb attack on a mosque in IslamabadRehman’s comments came against the backdrop of a suicide bombing at a Shia Muslim mosque in Islamabad that killed at least 31 people.
Another 170 people were injured in the blast. An attacker first opened fire at the mosque’s gate and then detonated a suicide bomb after guards challenged him as he tried to enter the Khadija Tul Kubra Imambargah compound, Reuters reported.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif wrote in a post on X that the man “blew himself into the last row of worshippers.” He also alleged that the attacker had traveled to Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, Talal Chowdhury, also reportedly said that the bomber was a Pakistani national who had made several trips to Afghanistan.
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However, the Taliban Defense Ministry spokesman, Inayat Khwarazmi, called the allegations “absurd” and “baseless”. Afghanistan has called on Pakistani authorities to address its internal security shortcomings without blaming its neighbors, KabulNow reported.
