(Usman/Wikimedia Commons)Pakistan's lawmakers on Thursday (6 October) unwittingly admitted that their country had harboured Khalistani militants. This report in Dawn, Pakistan's leading English daily, said that Senators traded charges on Khalistani militants at a joint session of Pakistan's parliament called to "demonstrate national unity on Kashmir issue”.
Ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Senator Mushahidullah Khan accused Senate leader of opposition, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, of the Pakistan People's Party (Ahsan was interior minister in Benazir Bhutto's government) of handing over the entire list of Khalistani militants controlled by Pakistan to India's intelligence agencies. Ahsan denied having done so.
What is pertinent is that he never denied knowing the identities of the Khalistani militants; he simply denied having disclosed their identities.
Pakistan has long been accused of stoking militancy in Punjab and training, funding and harbouring militants belonging to proscribed outfits like the Babbar Khalsa and Khalistani Commando Force. That Pakistan trained and harboured Khalistani militants is openly accepted even by that country's media, as this report in the Dawn demonstrates.
The Inter-Services Intelligence still has links with Khalistani separatists, as was reported by the United Kingdom's Daily Mail in 2014.
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