"In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban slaughtered 150 school children at Army Public School. All the political parties signed the National Action Plan and we all decided after that, that we will not allow any militant groups to operate inside Pakistan," said Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. "Until we came into power, the governments did not have the political will, because when you talk about militant groups we still have about 30,000-40,000 armed people who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir." The Indian government was extremely pleased and called this a "glaring admission", hoping that Pakistan will take "credible and irreversible action against terrorists". In an interview with Fox News Khan also said that "Pakistan's military spy agency provided the lead that helped the US find and kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden". It is accepted that, not only did the Pakistani army provide information on bin Laden, but actually cooperated in the attack by forming a protective cordon around the house he was staying in. So, what's Khan's game? Or more precisely, what's the Pakistani army's game? Because no Pakistani prime minister would dare to make such admissions without the army's permission. Everyone knows that Imran Khan won the elections because of the army's interference with the electoral process, as well as suppression of any criticism by journalists, such that opposition politicians called him a "selected prime minister", which has now been banned by the Speaker of the National Assembly. In a recent three-day visit to the US, Khan was accompanied by the army chief and the chief of the ISI. "In what is being seen as a departure from norms, Pakistan's top military leaders -- army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and newly appointed head of spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), general Faiz Hameed -- are also accompanying Khan," wrote E Roche. Bajwa sat in during Khan's meeting with President Donald Trump, apparently to assure him of Pakistan's help in US talks with the Taliban, so that US troops can be withdrawn from Afghanistan before presidential elections next year. Khan received an enthusiastic welcome on his return home to Pakistan. His visit to the US has been deemed a big success because he managed to avoid any discussion on Pakistan's support of terrorism and got Trump to declare that he would like to mediate in Kashmir. The US also promised $125 million to support F-16 fighter jets in Pakistan. Pakistan is playing a double game, helping China to increase its power in the region while indicating that the US cannot withdraw troops from Afghanistan without its help.Perhaps, it is being too clever. We shall see.
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