Pakistan Minister Attaullah Tarar's "No Terror Camps" Claim Gets Fact Checked On Live TV
New Delhi:
Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar was left red-faced on live television after Sky News journalist Yalda Hakim fact-checked his country's history of supporting terrorist organisations, just hours after India's military action on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK).
During an appearance on Sky News, Tarar alleged that the Indian ministry targeted civilian areas - a claim that was dismantled by Hakim.
"The Indian armed forces have said that they only targeted terrorist camps and not Pakistani military facilities," the anchor said. India carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba's base in Muridke.
Afghan journalist Yalda Hakim exposed 🇵🇰's Information Minister Ataullah Tarar in a TV interview. pic.twitter.com/NSrHdjeEoV
— Every Voice Matters 🇮🇳 (@Speaks_For_All) May 7, 2025
Tarah tried to deny the fact, saying, "Let me make it very clear, there are no terrorist camps in Pakistan. Pakistan is a victim of terrorism. We are fighting terrorism on our western borders. We are the frontline state against terrorism. We have laid down 90 thousand lives in this war against terrorism."
"India, on the other hand, when we had the Jafar Express hijacking, India did not even condemn it, let alone express any concern about the incident," Tarar claimed on the show.
Hakim interjected, pointing to Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif's recent admission on her earlier show about his country doing "dirty work" of sponsoring terrorism for the United States for three decades.
"On my programme, just a week ago, your Defence Minister Khawaja Asif admitted that Pakistan has for decades had a policy of funding, backing and using terrorist groups as proxies in the country (India). In fact, in 2018, President Donald Trump cut military aid to Pakistan because he accused Pakistan of playing a double game,' she said.
She continued, "So, when you say there are no terrorist camps in Pakistan, that is going against what General Parvez Musharraf has said, what Benazir Bhutto has said, what your Defence Minister has said just a week ago. In fact, Bilawal Bhutto told me a few days ago that funding and backing terrorist organisations have been and was part of Pakistan's history."
Tarar struggled to respond before claiming, "Post 9/11, Pakistan was a frontline state, and we still are a frontline state in eliminating terrorism. We are the guarantor of world peace because we are the wall between terrorists and the rest of the world."
He then proceeded to invite Hakim to visit Pakistan. At this point, she reminded the Pakistani Minister that Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who was the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attack, was found in Pakistan's Abbottabad, before being gunned down by the US military in 2011.
"I have been to Pakistan, and we know that Osama Bin Laden was discovered in Abbottabad in Pakistan," she said.
India on Wednesday said it exercised its right to respond, preempt, as well as deter more cross-border attacks such as the one in Pahalgam, and asserted that it focused on dismantling the terror infrastructure and disabling terrorists.
In a statement, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stressed the actions were measured, non-escalatory, proportionate and responsible.
Recalling the United Nations Security Council press statement on the Pahalgam attack, Misri said it underlined the "need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers, and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice".
"India's latest action should be seen in this context," Misri added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
27 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
UK finance minister Reeves to meet China's vice premier on London trip
LONDON, - British finance minister Rachel Reeves will hold a meeting with Chinese vice premier He Lifeng during his visit to Britain this week for trade talks with the United States, a British government source said on Sunday. China's foreign ministry said He would be in Britain between June 8 and June 13 when there will be talks in London with three of U.S. President Donald Trump's top aides to try to resolve a trade dispute between the world's two largest economies that has kept global markets on edge. The British government source said Reeves would host He for a bilateral meeting during the trip, although there were no details on when the talks would be held. The British finance minister met He during a visit to China in January, part of British attempts to improve ties with Beijing, one of the main policy goals of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government. However, many British lawmakers remain sceptical of China amid regular accusations of espionage by spies working for Beijing, and plans for a new large Chinese embassy in London remains a divisive subject, with the opposition Conservative Party saying it must be blocked. The Chinese government wants to build the embassy at Royal Mint Court, a historic site near the Tower of London, which would be its largest in Europe but its requests for planning permission have been rejected by the local council, and the government will make a final decision. The Sunday Times reported that a senior U.S. official had said Washington was "deeply concerned" about the plans, due to its proximity to London's financial hubs and three significant data centres, and approval could impact UK-U.S. trade talks. "These issues will be taken care of assiduously in the planning process," British technology minister Peter Kyle told Sky News on Sunday.
Hindustan Times
33 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Confident of ex-Pak PM Imran Khan's release on June 11: Party colleague
Incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan is likely to get bail on June 11 in the Al-Qadir Trust case, a top party leader has said here. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) is set to hear the petitions requesting the suspension of sentences to Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the 190 million Pound Al-Qadir Trust case on June 11. Khan, 72, has been lodged at the Adiala Jail since August 2023 in multiple cases. Expressing confidence that the party's founder will secure bail that day, Gohar Ali Khan, chief of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said, June 11 is going to be an important day for both Khan and his wife, but gave no particular reason. The IHC had earlier postponed the hearing of petitions in the Al-Qadir Trust case until June 11. The adjournment came after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) requested additional time to prepare its arguments, ARY News reported. Gohar told ARY News on Saturday that the PTI will collaborate with opposition parties to launch a movement, which will be led by the party's patron-in-chief from jail. He urged the opposition parties to join PTI for the sake of the country's survival and security and revealed that a strategy for the upcoming budget has been finalised. 'The party will address a press conference on June 9 regarding it,' he said. Earlier last month, Khan had said he will lead his party's upcoming protest movement against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led coalition government at the Centre, from the prison. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister and a prominent leader of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Ali Amin Gandapur, earlier this week threatened to launch a full-scale movement for the cricketer-turned-politician's release after Eid Al-Adha. Khan, who faces multiple cases and has been convicted in a few of them, has repeatedly claimed the February 8 general elections of last year to have witnessed the 'Mother of All Rigging.' He has called his rivals the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as 'mandate thieves.' Rana Sanaullah, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs, while speaking with the media at his home town of Faisalabad in Punjab on Saturday, urged the PTI to accept Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's offer of a meeting for negotiations and sit with the government to make amendments to the election laws. Gohar claimed Khan's wife Bushra Bibi, was being held in jail without any charges to pressure the PTI founder and claimed no deals will be made for the founder's release. He also dismissed rumors of internal rifts within PTI. Some years ago, the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom agreed to a settlement worth 190 million pounds with the family of property tycoon Malik Riaz. According to an earlier report in Dawn, the NCA, in August 2019, declared that it was granted freezing orders on eight bank accounts containing 100 million pounds, 'suspected to have derived from bribery and corruption in an overseas nation.' The NCA said it had informed the then government, run by Khan's PTI. It is alleged that Khan asked Shehzad Akbar, his aide on accountability, to resolve the matter, who in turn, 'settled' the case with the frozen funds belonging to the national treasury being adjusted against Bahria Town's liability, the Dawn said. Bahria Town Ltd, Malik's real estate firm, was found to have illegally acquired thousands of acres of land on Karachi's outskirts in district Malir. It had donated hundreds of acres of land to the Al-Qadir Trust, a non-profit that has only two trustees – Khan and Bushra Bibi.
Hans India
33 minutes ago
- Hans India
Pakistani army acts as custodian of ideologies, religion: Former diplomat DP Srivastava
Former Indian diplomat D.P. Srivastava stated that Pakistan's Army challenges the concept of sovereignty by acting as a custodian of ideologies and religion, rather than focusing on national frontiers like the military forces of other nations. Srivastava also slammed the radical Islamist ideology in Pakistan, which pits the nation against its neighbouring countries, including India. In an interview with IANS, the former diplomat also talked about Pakistani Army's Field Marshal General Asim Munir's April 16 speech, just days before the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 innocent people lost their lives at the hands of terrorists belonging to The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. He hailed Operation Sindoor and said that it reflected a major shift in India's security doctrine. He also commented on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's G7 invite. The following are the excerpts from the interview: IANS: Could you tell us something about your book "Pakistan -- Ideologies, Strategies and Interests"? D.P. Srivastava: My postings took me to Karachi, Pakistan, and the early 1990s. I dealt with Pakistan, among other issues, in the UN division of the Ministry of External Affairs for eight years in the '90s, and during this, I dealt with Kashmir talks to the Pokhran nuclear test and Kargil. The inspiration for the book came from my posting to Karachi, where I heard the phrase 'Nazaria-e-Pakistan', which means the ideology of Pakistan. This is the very phrase used by Gen Munir, who mentioned this in his speech on April 16, days before the Pahalgam terror attack. My book traces the interpretation of ideology and elite interest in the making of Pakistan's domestic and foreign policy. IANS: What is the ideology of Pakistan? Gen Asim Munir mentioned "superior ideology" and the two-nation theory in his speech on April 16. What is this ideology? D.P. Srivastava: The ideology of Pakistan remains vague due to various influential factors within the country. In 1972, two provincial governments were dismissed, and the principal opposition party, the National Awami Party, was banned after the Supreme Court of Pakistan stated that the party was contrary to the ideology of Pakistan. Notably, this occurred before the formation of the country's new constitution, indicating that the ideology preceded the Constitution in Pakistan. There are different views of what this ideology is. Iqbal, who is known as the best explainer of Pakistani ideology, said that in Islam, religion and state are integral to each other, so he ruled out the idea of secularism, and he also opposed the idea of nationalism. Iqbal also stressed the concept of Umma, which is pan-Islamism, and these are the concepts at the root of Pakistan's current trouble where the jihadi groups do not accept the supremacy of the Parliament, the sovereignty of which, is also challenged by the Army. The jihadi philosophy has always pitted Pakistan against its neighbours, including, what they call "the Hindu India, Shia Iran, and Sunni Afghanistan". IANS: What is the mindset of the Pakistan Army? D.P. Srivastava: To understand the mindset Pakistan Army, one should go back to Gen Asim Munir's April 16 speech, where he reminded his Pakistani audience that they belong to a superior ideology. What is this ideology, one may ask? (Former Pakistani President) Ayub Khan described it as Islam. It is very strange that the Pakistani army chiefs talk about ideology and Islam. In other nations, the armies protect the national frontiers, while in Pakistan, the army has become a custodian of ideologies and religion. Seems like Gen Munir has assumed the priest and a general. The Pakistani army has institutionalised its role in the running of the government, where the civilian parties have taken the backseat. This mindset is also reflected in the neglect of socioeconomic indicators. Pakistan's army regards itself as the state, and it has this mindset has led to excessive defensive expenditure to the neglect of economic indicators. IANS: How do you see Operation Sindoor? Is it part of a larger strategic shift in India's security policy against Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism? D.P. Srivastava: Operation Sindoor represents a strategic shift in India's security doctrine, as the Prime Minister has underlined. Pakistan has used the threat of escalation to the nuclear level in the case of India's conventional response to subconventional threats like terror attacks. This time, however, there was no statement from the Pakistani side about nuclear escalation during Operation Sindhoor. So Pakistan's bluff has been called, that it cannot escalate a local conflict or deter India from a military response to a terror attack, and this is a major shift in the paradigm. It also sends a message to the global community that India will exercise its right of self-defence, and we have the strength to do so. We did that in a very responsible manner. We avoided escalation. The escalation came mostly from the Pakistani side. India's initial strike was only against the terror camps. We avoided hitting any Pakistani, civil or military installation. It was Pakistan which attacked Indian Air Force bases, and that forced India to attack Pakistani military installations, and that brought Pakistan quickly to its knees. The Pakistani DGMO called his Indian counterpart, begging for a ceasefire. This message has also gone home and has been understood well by the international community. IANS: Prime Minister Modi has accepted an invitation by Canadian PM Mark Carney to the G7 Summit. Do you think this will help mend the strained India-Canada ties? D.P. Srivastava: The Prime Minister has accepted the invitation to go to the G7 summit. So the focus will be on global issues, not on bilateral relations. But, of course, when the leaders meet, they discuss the entire range of issues, and this will be a good opportunity to bring the bilateral relations back on an even keel. We had good relations with Canada, and I believe, there's a better understanding of the Indian position in the new government there, about the impact of terrorism. And, I think the new government is unlikely to use these incidents as an electoral card. So we hope that this visit will bring about a clearer understanding between the two countries.
