 "Record needs to be put straight on Trump's tirade against Pak: Imran Khan")
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday hit back at United States President Donald Trump for his outburst against the South-Asian nation for helping Osama bin Laden, who had taken refuge there and "doing nothing for" the US.
In a series of tweets, Khan clarified that Pakistan had no role in the September 2001 attack on New York's World Trade Centre and highlighted the cost his country had to pay in terms of soldier casualties and economic damage in the ensuing war in Afghanistan. He also asked the US to assess their failure in tackling terrorism instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat.
"Record needs to be put straight on Mr Trump's tirade against Pakistan: 1. No Pakistani was involved in 9/11 but Pak decided to participate in US War on Terror. 2. Pakistan suffered 75,000 casualties in this war & over $123 bn was lost to economy. US "aid" was a miniscule $20 bn.," Khan tweeted.
"3. Our tribal areas were devastated & millions of ppl uprooted from their homes. The war drastically impacted lives of ordinary Pakistanis. 4. Pak continues to provide free lines of ground & air communications(GLOCs/ALOCs).Can Mr Trump name another ally that gave such sacrifices?" Khan said in a separate tweet.
"Instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 140000 NATO troops plus 250,000 Afghan troops & reportedly $1 trillion spent on war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before," Khan added.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Trump said that Pakistan doesn't do "a damn thing for us," and defended his administration's decision to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to the country.
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Earlier on Monday, Trump continued his tirade against Pakistan through his Twitter account.
"Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools! We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That's ENDING!" Trump tweeted.