A day after an attack on a Peshawar army school by the Taliban left 141 dead, including 133 children, former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf chose to blame India for the massacre.
“Do you know who is Maulana Fazlullah? He is the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander. He is in Afghanistan. And I am reasonably sure that he was supported by former Karzai government and RAW to carry out terror attacks in Pakistan,” Musharraf told CNN-IBN in an exclusive interview.
The former Pakistan president said the perpetrators of the crime were those trained by India. He said that the Taliban’s commander was supported by Afghanistan and India to carry out the terrorist attack in Pakistan.
Pervez Musharraf. Reuters
Pervez Musharraf. Reuters
Meanwhile, on national television in Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed blamed India for the attack in the army-run school in Peshawar and vowed revenge.
Saeed said it was a conspiracy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government against Pakistan.
Saeed also threatened to send terrorists to India to take revenge. “If India can send troops to Afghanistan to help the US, then Mujahideen have every right to go to Kashmir and help their brethren. Kashmiris are clamouring for help and it is our duty to respond to their call.”
According to the reported findings of Intelligence Bureau, Saeed is planning multiple attacks along with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in New Delhi. The suspected targets are two hotels in the capital and a highway between New Delhi and Agra, reported Times of India.
Saeed’s Twitter handle was recently suspended after he after he urged Pakistanis to help Kashmiris get ‘freedom’ from India.
The United Nations declared JuD a terrorist organisation and also individually designated Saeed as a terrorist in December 2008. Saeed also has a bounty of $10 million on his head but roams around freely in Pakistan.
Saeed’s threats come even as India has pledged its support to its neighbour as it grapples with its worst-ever terror attack.
As Pakistan began its three-day mourning with mass burials, Indian schools held two minutes’ silence and special prayers this morning for the young lives lost. A similar tribute was paid by both houses of Parliament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the Peshawar attack as a tragedy that has “shaken the conscience of the world” and told Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif that the attack “is also a call for our two countries and all those who believe in humanity to join hands to decisively and comprehensively defeat terrorism.”
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has met the Pakistani envoy in Delhi and pledged to “do everything possible to help Pakistan counter the menace of terrorism”.
