Overview

• Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif publicly admitted the country’s decades-long history of supporting, training, and funding terrorist groups, calling it a mistake.
• Former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto echoed this admission, acknowledging the nation’s troubled past with extremism and its resulting suffering.
• Bhutto denied current state sponsorship of terrorism, describing such policies as part of Pakistan’s history and not reflective of its present actions.
• He emphasized that Pakistan has implemented internal reforms to address extremism and claimed the country has learned lessons from its past mistakes.
• Tensions between India and Pakistan remain high following the April 22 Pahalgam attack by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, with suspended treaties, border closures, and cross-border warnings exacerbating the standoff.