US attacked Afghanistan 57,800 times from our base: Pak foreign minister
New Delhi: Days after US president Donald Trump accused Pakistan of “lies and deceit”, foreign minister of Pakistan Khawaja Asif responded to Trump in a series of tweets and said: “You ask what we've done?... From our bases you carried out 57,800 attacks on Afghanistan...thousands of our civilians and soldiers became victims of the war initiated by you.”
Khawaja Asif repeatedly talked of Pakistanis' sacrifices. And directly in response to Trump's words, said his own version of the US President's "No more!"
"Our forces are fighting an unusual war, there is an unending saga of sacrifices. Now, history teaches us not to blindly trust the US. We are feeling sorry they are not happy, but we will not compromise on our dignity anymore," Pakistan foreign minister said.
Asif began his series of tweets by attacking Pakistan’s former-president Pervez Musharraf, who was in charge when the 9/11 terror attacks occurred in New York.
"A ruler surrendered in a single phone call, our country, we went through the worst bloodbath," said Asif, about the military dictator Musharraf.
Asif implied that if anyone was a fool it was Pakistan for getting involved in US's war. He was talking about Trump’s first tweet of 2018 where the US president said that Islamabad takes Americans for fools.
"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!," tweeted Trump on January 1, 2018.
Read: They give lies, deceit in return for billions in aid: Trump tears into Pak
Trump's blistering attack didn't go down well with anyone in Pakistan. Asif responded immediately on Twitter.
"Will let the world know the truth...(the) difference between facts & fiction," said Asif on Monday.
Then, a day and a half later, he expanded on what he believes is the truth.
"We stood by you, considered your enemy our own. We filled Guantanamo Bay," said Asif, talking about the detention camp which was opened on January 11, 2002.
Pakistan's foreign minister referred to his country's cooperation in helping the US find terrorists and war criminals and dispatching them to the prison established by then US President George W Bush's administration during its 'war on terror', an international military campaign to hunt down "a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.”
The Pakistan foreign minister said not only his country found terrorists for the US, it also opened itself up for operatives of the now disgraced Blackwater, a firm of private military contractors.
"We issued tens of thousands of visas as a result of which the networks of Blackwater spread across our country. And for the past four years, we have been cleaning up (their) rubbish," said Asif.
