Pakistan provides a safe sanctuary for terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar

In a befitting reply to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement calling India a “fascist state inspired by the Nazis,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that Pakistan has made an “attempt to distract international and domestic attention from its own problems.”

“Considering his situation and Pakistan’s own approach towards radicalism, terrorism, and issues that are important to the international community, Pakistan Prime Minister really shouldn’t be making such irresponsible statements,” Shringla said in an interview to a German channel DW News.

Shringla’s response comes days after Pakistan PM Imran Khan in an interview with German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, had called India a fascist state, inspired by the Nazis in the1920s and the1930s.

“India is a threat to its neighbours, to China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and to us. It has the most extremist, racist government on the subcontinent. It is a fascist state, inspired by the Nazis in the 1920s and the 1930s,” Khan had said.

Shringla pointed out that Pakistan has a plethora of domestic problems, including enormous socio-economic problems, and political problems. He said that Khan is making such statements to distract the attention of the international community from the weak structure of his own country.

“…a country that today has a debt higher than the GDP, a country that has enormous socio-economic problems, and political problems now with an entire coalition of all the opposition parties seeking to unseat Prime Minister Imran Khan and those who back him from the Deep-State and it is clearly an attempt to distract international attention and domestic attention from its own problems that Imran Khan is making such statements,” he said.

Further, the Foreign Secretary said that Pakistan openly supports terrorism and provides a safe sanctuary for terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar of the Taliban.

“That is right coming from the Prime Minister of the country that doesn’t recognize the state of Israel, that till, now, doesn’t recognize that the holocaust took place, that has provided the safe sanctuary for Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar of the Taliban years after 9/11..” Shringla said.

Meanwhile, speaking to the German publication, Pakistan PM had denied its involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks. Pakistan had "nothing to do with the terror attacks on 9/11,” he said.

“Al Qaeda was in Afghanistan. After 9/11, we should not have allowed our army to become involved in the war. I opposed it from day one. The US put pressure on us, and military dictator General Pervez Musharraf succumbed to that pressure,” Khan had said.