'Lashkar Doesn't Exist Here': Pakistan Defence Minister Makes Brazen Claim, Then Warns Of 'All-Out War'
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has also threatened "all-out war" with India and said that world should be worried about prospect of a war between two nuclear nations.
Marred by New Delhi’s iron fist moves following the April 22 attack in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif has accused India of “staging" the Pahalgam terror attack in a “false flag" operation to create a “crisis in the region, particularly for Pakistan".
Without giving any evidence for his outrageous claims, Asif said that Lashkar-e-Taiba – whose offshoot, The Resistance Front, claimed responsibility for the cowardly attack on unarmed men – “does not exist anymore in Pakistan" and the allegations are levelled by India to create a situation for its own advantage.
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26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed heads the Lashkar and is still living in Pakistan.
In an interview with Britain’s Sky News, Asif claimed, “The reaction that came from Delhi was not surprising for us, we could make out that this whole thing was staged to create some sort of crisis in the region, particularly for us."
Pakistan’s defence minister has told Sky News that a row over a mass shooting in Kashmir could lead to an “all-out war"Speaking to @SkyYaldaHakim, Khawaja Asif suggested India had “staged" the shooting.
Full interview: https://t.co/jvth4a0Umv pic.twitter.com/jVhFmjN4ij
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 24, 2025
He claimed that The Resistance Front is an organisation that has never been heard of.
“Our government has condemned it categorically. Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism for decades. But this sort of pattern is going on in India. This time again, the people who are being accused (of attacking) are not known. Never heard of that organisation," he said.
The anchor reminded him of the Front being an offshoot of the Lashkar, to which the Pakistani minister falsely said, “Lashkar is a name from the past. It does not exist."
When asked if he was blaming India for the Pahalgam attack on its own citizens and what evidence he had for his claims, Asif, wiping his sweat, said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely, they create these situations."
Stammering, the Minister added, “They never came up with any evidence. They create a situation for their own advantage. Lashar does not exist in Pakistan anymore. Our intelligence agencies say it’s all staged. It was staged in Pulwama also."
Reporter grills Pakistan defence minister about his allegations that #PahalgamTerroristAttack was a false flag operation by india.He couldnt provide any evidence to her but said we used to do dirty work for US & UK that’s why we have links with terroristsWOW 🙄😂🤦 pic.twitter.com/thxCOQvugh— Avi M 🛸🇮🇳🕉️ (@AvirupM42) April 24, 2025
Responding to a question if Pakistan was concerned about a possible retaliation through airstrikes, Asif recalled airstrikes by the Indian Air Force in 2019 in Balakot and dubbed it a “false flag operation".
“This has happened before, also, Pulwama. It was a false flag operation. We have never heard the organisation that’s behind this attack. If India attacks us, we will retaliate in kind," he claimed.
He also threatened an “all-out war" between India and Pakistan and said that the world should be “worried" about the prospect of a full-scale military engagement between two nuclear-armed nations.
“If there is an all-out attack or something like that, then obviously there will be an all-out war," he said.
His remarks came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in first public remarks on Pahalgam attack, warned in stern words that India will “identify, track and punish" every terrorist and their backers and pursue them “till the ends of earth" to retaliate against the terror attack that claimed 26 innocent lives at the beauty spot in Kashmir on April 22.
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