Pakistan's sham crackdown on terror was exposed yet again, after a leader from Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's party PTI, was seen sharing a stage with designated terrorist- Fazlur Rehman Khalil. The photograph surfaced on social media was from the All Parties Kashmir Solidarity Conference, that was held in Islamabad on September 16. 

The conference that saw the presence of prominent leaders including the President of PoK Masood Khan and Imran Khan's Special Assistant on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan. However, the presence of Khalil, the founder of the terror organisation Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) was highly questionable. 

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Pakistan on terrorism

New Delhi along with the world community has often called out Pakistan for fuelling terror, backing and harbouring terror organisation on their soil to create unrest in Kashmir. Ironically, Imran Khan's PTI rose to power in the neighbour country with the promise the eradicate terrorists from the country, himself has faced criticism for doing the exact opposite of his claims. 

According to reports, the terrorist, Khalil has been a stronger backer of the Imran Khan, and also advocated for his candidature as the Prime Minister in the country last year, before the elections. The terrorist organisation, the founder of which has backed Imran Khan is known to have been in direct contact with former Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his family when he was seeking safe haven in Abbottabad. The terrorist, sharing the stage with Pakistani politician, has been on the US State department's foreign terrorist organisation list since 1997.

In March 2019, a month after the Pulwama terror attack perpetrated by Pakistan backed Jaish-e-Mohammed, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the US-designated terrorist was inducted into Pakistan's PTI. 

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Pakistan under FATF fire again

Pakistan has, time and again, found itself under the FATF fire for failing to take action against terror funding and groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) among others. The FATF recently gave a stern message to Pakistan to expedite its action plan for curbing terror financing by October or face the prospect of getting blacklisted, which could aggravate problems for its stagnant economy.

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(With ANI inputs)