Former foreign minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has firmly rejected India’s allegations that Pakistan patronizes terrorist groups, calling them “baseless and misleading.”
Speaking in an interview with Indian journalist Karan Thapar, Bilawal stated that Pakistan rejects terrorism allegations and has suffered more from terrorism than many nations combined.
“Pakistan does not willingly permit any group to conduct terrorist attacks — not outside of Pakistan and certainly not within,” he clarified, emphasizing the country’s deep-rooted sacrifices in fighting terrorism over the past two decades.
Highlighting the devastating toll of terrorism on Pakistan, Bilawal said, “We’ve lost 92,000 lives altogether. Just last year alone, more than 1,200 civilians were killed in over 200 terrorist attacks.” He warned that if the current rate of attacks continues, “this year will be the bloodiest in Pakistan’s history.”
The PPP leader also spoke from personal tragedy, recalling the assassination of his mother and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. “I too am a victim of terrorism. I feel the pain of the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. I understand their trauma in a way few others can.”
Bilawal went on to defend Pakistan’s anti-terror credentials, noting the country’s military operations in South and North Waziristan, the implementation of a National Action Plan, and its recent compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) protocols. “We went through a rigorous FATF process. The international community knows this. There’s no room to hide,” he said.
Referring to the recent Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Bilawal criticized India’s response. “Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered to be part of any impartial international investigation. That offer still stands. Our hands are clean. But India refused,” he noted.
Bilawal also revealed that he led a parliamentary delegation to multiple global capitals to counter Indian propaganda following the recent military standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
The April attack in IIOJK had led to a brief but intense military confrontation in May, with missiles, drones, and artillery fire exchanged over four days — the worst escalation in decades. In response, Pakistan launched Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos, targeting Indian military positions.
