Pakistan Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s admission that “30,000 to 40,000” militants - trained in Afghanistan and Kashmir - are still operating in Pakistan, may become a serious issue for Islamabad with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Government of India sources said in New Delhi, reports The Hindu. The sources indicated that India was considering making the remarks a part of its submission ahead of the next meeting in October of the international terror financing watchdog.
Earlier, speaking at a think-tank in Washington on July 23, Imran Khan said though Pakistan’s Government had launched a “National Action Plan” against terrorism after the Peshawar school attack in December 2015, implementation began only after his Government came to power last year. “Until we came into power, the governments did not have the will to [implement the National Action Plan], because if you talk of militant groups, they still have about 30,000-40,000 people who are armed and who have been trained in some sort of a theatre, who fought either in Afghanistan or maybe in Kashmir,” Imran Khan said at the United States Institute of Peace, in the first clear admission by Pakistan that thousands of terrorists and training camps which have been active in Kashmir, still operate in Pakistan. Later in the day, He also pointed to the existence of at least “40 militant groups” in the period after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Imran Khan’s remarks contradict the Pakistan Army’s position on the existence of terror groups.